Romanian President Traian Basescu recently said that he requested oil and gas company Chevron to exercise the rights given by the licenses issued by the Government, in a friendly manner to the local communities.

Basescu met with Derek Magness, general manager of Chevron Europe Exploration and Production, Johnny L. Hall executive vice-president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, and Mariana Gheorghe, general manager of Romania’s OMV Petrom, on Thursday, March 13.

The meetings and the statement came months after villagers in Pungesti, in North - East Romania, opposed Chevron's moves to search for shale gas in the area. More about this, here.

“There should be more discussions with the local communities, [...],” said Basescu.

According to the President, both Chevron and Exxon intend to continue activity in Romania, using the existing exploration permits received from the government.

“My main message was to make sure that the Romanian market is served first, then the one of the Republic of Moldova, as Romania pledges to support the Republic of Moldova in reducing, down to zero, the energy dependence to the Russian Federation, and to the energy resources in Transnistria,[...],” said the President.

In his opinion, the two companies’ business plans should start from the premise that the first markets to be served are the Romanian and the Moldovan ones. “From here on, any surplus of production may also be used for the neighbors,” he added.

In the beginning of October last year, Chevron obtained the permits to build its first exploration well for shale gas in Vaslui county, at Pungesti, with all other permits in place.

Several protests against Chevron’s exploration of shale gas were staged in Romania last year. The protests were triggered by concerns that exploration would be harmful to the environment, and coincided with protests against gold mining in Central Romania, at Rosia Montana, where the planned used of cyanide also caused concern.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com