RBSTA opinion on the final offshore law October 2018

Over the last 2 years the offshore industry, represented by RBSTA, has participated in consultation with the Romanian State represented by all relevant governmental ministries; national agencies and authorities and parliamentary committees on the offshore regulatory framework.

RBSTA’s activities have been limited to sharing the key issues and risks, related to the industry as well as international best practices, but also providing assessments of the impacts of the proposed legislation on the industry and potential new investments offshore Romania.

Consistent messages throughout have been the importance of competitive and stable fiscal terms, a clear regulatory framework and the rights to freely market any production.

The vote in the Chamber of Deputies on October 24, 2018 marks the completion of the Parliamentary re-examination process with a new law that impacts stability, introduces new taxes and stipulates certain conditions on how production may be marketed.

RBSTA now expects that, once the final approved version will become available, each industry participant will need to evaluate the impact of the law in its entirety on their respective businesses and the viability of any offshore investment opportunities.

The Romanian Black Sea Titleholders Association (RBSTA) is the only association dedicated to the exploration and development of Romania’s Black Sea hydrocarbons resources. RBSTA is formed by titleholders of concessions offshore Romania. Current titleholders (in alphabetic order) of the Romanian Black Sea concessions represented in the Association are: Black Sea Oil & Gas S.R.L.; ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited; Gas Plus International B.V.; Lukoil Overseas Atash B.V.; OMV Petrom S.A.; Petro Ventures Resources S.R.L.; S.N.G.N. Romgaz S.A. Over $2 billion were invested in the last 10 years in exploration activities only. The development of production facilities for the new projects involve additional investments of several billion dollars.

Source: http://rbsta.ro