Rainer Seele, the CEO of Austrian group OMV, and Christine Verchere, the CEO of OMV’s Romanian subsidiary - OMV Petrom, had a meeting with Romanian acting prime minister Ludovic Orban and the minister of economy and energy Virgil Popescu, on March 3.

The discussions addressed the sluggish legislative steps towards removing the problematic provisions of the so-called “greed tax” ordinance (OUG 114/2018), which determined OMV to put on hold its offshore investment plans in the Black Sea.

Romania’s Senate recently rejected an emergency ordinance adopted by the Orban cabinet, which removes some of the controversial provisions of OUG 114, and the final vote is expected in the Chamber of Deputies. The outcome remains unpredictable given the current political turmoil.

Separately, OMV’s partner in the Neptun Deep offshore gas project, ExxonMobil, has not yet announced any specific steps after it said that it wanted to sell its stake.

The Government’s press office announced this meeting in advance, without specifying that top OMV officials would attend it.

PM Orban said that he briefed OMV officials over the procedures aimed at reversing OUG 114/2018 (the “greed tax” ordinance).

“I presented them the emergency ordinance OUG 1/2020 and they expressed concerns as it has been rejected [by the Senate]. There are more details that need to be considered, though. The first unknown is what [OMV’s partner in the Black Sea operations] Exxon wants to do next, there is not yet a committee to make decisions in this regard [for the sale of the Neptun Deep - n.red stake],” PM Orban told Ziarul Financiar.

In mid-February, the Senate rejected the emergency ordinance OUG 1/2020 regarding some fiscal-budgetary measures and for amending and completing some normative acts (essentially OUG 114/2018). The emergency ordinance also includes the cancellation of the 2% tax applied to energy companies. The final vote will be given by the Chamber of Deputies.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)