Senate passes offshore drilling law

At a plenary session on Wednesday, the Senate passed a piece of legislation amending the offshore drilling law that regulates the oil exploration, development, exploitation of oil fields both in offshore and deep onshore oil blocks establishing the Romanian government's preemption right for the acquisition of natural gas, Agerpres reports.

The bill passed 91 to 13.

On Tuesday, the Senate budget and finance committees issued a 17 to two joint admission report on the Black Sea offshore gas exploitation law.

During the meeting, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu underlined that by amending the current law, investment in the Black Sea will be unfrozen and investment in deep onshore drilling will be sped up, while ensuring Romania's supply security in case of an energy crisis. Romania will be able to become a provider of regional energy security, after producing more than it uses.

He mentioned that, compared with the tax regulations in the initial law, an additional income tax was practically repealed.

The legislative proposal amending and supplementing Law 256/2018 on measures necessary for the implementation of oil operations by holders of oil agreements regarding offshore oil blocks will move to the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body in this case, for final consideration.