Ruling party leader wants Black Sea gas to be used for Romania’s development

Liviu Dragnea, the leader of Romania’s ruling party – the Social Democratic Party (PSD), says he wants part of the natural gas that will be extracted from the Black Sea to be used for the country’s economic development. He added that he will not accept that all gas extracted from the Black Sea to be sold via bilateral contracts, local Hotnews.ro reported. Liviu Dragnea thinks that the new offshore law should target two objectives, namely Romania’s strategic interest of starting the gas exploitation to get the financial benefits and, more importantly, that some of the gas extracted from the Black Sea is used for reviving Romania’s industry and the country’s economic development. According to Dragnea, the biggest risk is that all these rich resources only transit Romania and contribute to the development of other countries. “The big stake is that a percentage of this production is sold on the local market so that domestic consumers also have access to it,” he said. The Romanian Parliament has delayed the vote on the offshore law, which is essential for starting the Black Sea gas exploitation. The MPs from the industries committee disagree with the investors on the percentage of gas to be traded on the local gas market. The taxation of the offshore gas production is also a hot issue. US group ExxonMobil and local group OMV Petrom, which operate the most important gas perimeter in the Black Sea, have postponed a decision on starting the commercial exploitation because the law has not been adopted yet. ExxonMobil could extract 6.3 bcm of gas from the Black Sea per year Hungary, US press Romania to start exploiting Black Sea gas editor@romania-insider.com