The concession agreement for the exploration, development and exploitation of the XIX Neptun perimeter was initially approved in 2000, through a government decision, being valid until 2030. The Government on Wednesday approved an addendum to the agreement.
The document was initially signed by French company Elf Aquitane and Petrom, which was still fully owned by the Romanian state at that time. ExxonMobil took over the French company’s participation in 2008 and, subsequently, Austrian OMV Group became the majority shareholder of Petrom.
The government motivated its decision by saying that “the title holders exploited the XIX Neptun perimeter in a responsible manner” and the investments they made exceeded the initial estimations.
The government also said the offshore development requires “massive investments in sophisticated technologies” and total costs could “usually reach billions of dollars,” therefore the time period needs to be “sufficient” to create infrastructure and production capacity, as well as to be able to exploit the potential resources.