OMV Petrom's Verchere: Romania has additional gas that is blocked due to the legislation

The current situation in the Romanian energy market is caused, in addition to the European context, by the lack of investment in new production capacity, but also by the fact that, although we have additional gas resources, these are blocked due to legislation, Christina Verchere, CEO of OMV Petrom, said in an interview to AGERPRES.

The tax burden on natural gas is what discourages new investment. The tax regime is six times higher than the European Union average, and ten times higher for offshore gas.

Verchere says high gas prices are not reflected in the company's results due to extremely high taxation. In 2021, the effective tax rate of gas production was 47%, and OMV Petrom transferred to the state budget the record amount of 12.3 billion lei.

At the same time, the official OMV Petrom considers that the decrease in the company's gas production did not have any impact on the prices, which followed the trend of the international market.

The solution for ensuring energy for Romania is to unblock the natural gas resources from the Black Sea, she underlined, specifying that OMV Petrom postponed for another year, for 2023, taking a decision whether or not to remove these deposits.