Latest exploration perimeters in Romania don’t produce expected results

The latest exploration perimeters offered for concession by Romania’s National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM) did not have the expected results, said yesterday Mihai Spataru, ANRM senior adviser. This should be considered when the Government will change the royalty system for oil extraction, so that both the Romanian state and the investors will benefit from this, he added, reports local Agerpres. A high tax regime will not bring major benefits to Romania in the medium term. For the offshore area, the best way to attract new investors is to put a tax on income and not by increasing the royalty collection level, the ANRM senior adviser said. The oil & gas producers pay the state between 3.5% and 13.5% of the production based on how rich the deposits are. In countries like Venezuela, Russia or Nigeria, the oil & gas producers need to pay back the state up to a third of the production’s value. Romania currently has about 240 oil deposits under exploitation, 90% of which are over 40 years old. ANRM is the government institution in charge for handing out licenses for extracting mineral resources in Romania. editor@romania-insider.com