This
\nweek the Parliament of Romania is set to discuss a new draft Offshore Act, the
\nendorsement of which would allow for investments for offshore drilling for
\nnatural gas in the Black Sea and for the development of the country’s petrochemical
\nindustry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nbill has been approved already by the National Liberal Party, the Social
\nDemocratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians (UDMR), which
\nmake up a majority in Parliament at present and are determined to take
\nresponsibility for the bill. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According
<\/p>\n
In
<\/p>\n
The
<\/p>\n
The
<\/p>\n
One
<\/p>\n
The
<\/p>\n
The
<\/p>\n
Since Romania’s domestic demand stands at around 11
<\/p>\n
The
<\/p>\n
Over
With the energy crunch deepened by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, Parliament is looking at a new bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":90207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[34882,29822,40516,28918,30821,35104,30263,34651],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-91858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-black","tag-crisis","tag-drilling","tag-energy","tag-gas","tag-natural","tag-offshore","tag-sea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nto deputy PM and UDMR president Kelemen Hunor, in 2026-2027 at the soonest
\nRomania will be able to extract natural gas from the Black Sea.<\/strong> He also
\nexplained that an economic crisis also brings along opportunities, forcing
\nauthorities to attract investors and to see what changes must be made in order for
\nthe country to switch from thermal power plants burning coal to ones running on
\ngas. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nturn, PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103, recently elected president of the National Liberal
\nParty, approves of the bill, arguing that it will help Romania reduce its
\nreliance on Russian gas. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nSocial Democratic leader and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marcel Ciolacu also
\nbacks the bill, and says there is political determination and legislative,
\ngovernmental and executive coherence for it to be endorsed. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nOffshore Act has been stuck in Parliament for over 4 years, with several drafts
\nhaving reached various stages of the regulatory process. The new draft tabled
\nto Parliament has been subject to discussions in the ruling coalition for
\nseveral months now. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nscenario is for the Romanian government to receive a minimum of 60% of the
\nproceeds from the natural gas, with the balance to be kept by private companies.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\ncurrent legislation stipulates a 30% to 70% progressive tax on the additional
\nrevenues made from the natural gas price rises, and companies are bound to sell
\n50% of the output through the Bucharest Commodity Exchange.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nOffshore Act is eagerly awaited by companies
\ninterested in drilling for gas in the Black Sea. Several gas producers,
\nincluding OMV Petrom, an Austrian company in which the Romanian
\ngovernment also holds stock, spent billions of US dollars for a decade on preparations
\nto tap into the estimated 200 billion cubic metres of gas on Romania’s
\ncontinental shelf.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nbillion cubic metres per year, this would turn the country into an exporter of
\nnatural gas.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nUS company ExxonMobil also announced they would invest in the venture, however
\nin 2019 they decided to sell their stock to the Romanian state-owned company
\nRomgaz. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthe years, the level of taxes levied on the extraction companies was one of the
\nmain barriers to developing the natural gas reserves in the Black Sea, making investors
\nreluctant and getting projects suspended, to the benefit of natural gas imports
\nfrom Russia. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"