Russian Interest in Black Sea Gas Project Worries Romanian Govt

Russian energy giant Lukoil is in talks with ExxonMobil about the planned sale of the US multinational's 50 per cent stake of Neptun Deep gas project in the Romanian zone of the Black Sea, Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban revealed late on Monday.

"Lukoil has asked for some information," Orban said in an interview with Romanian news channel Digi24, although he added: "This does not mean that a decision to sell to Lukoil has been taken."

He blamed a law that toughened conditions for foreign energy investors that was adopted by Romania's former Social Democrat government in July 2018 for ExxonMobil's possible exit.

Known as Decree 114, the law has been now partially repealed by Orban's government. It was justified by the Social Democrats at the time as a way to reduce Romania's gas dependence on foreign companies - particularly on "the Russians", as the Social Democrats' leader Liviu Dragnea said at the time.

Orban also said on Monday that "other investors are interested in buying [the stake in the Black Sea project], including a consortium that includes [Austrian company] OMV, [Romanian state enterprise] Romgaz and another company".

The centre-right prime minister, who belongs to the emphatically pro-Western National Liberal Party, expressed his government's preference for a European or American company to take over Exxon's shares should the US firm leave the Neptun Depp project. The other half of the project's shares are currently held by Austria's OMV.

"We would like a serious partner, if Exxom decides to sell, which is from the area of our partnerships - the EU and NATO," Orban said.

He said that the Romanian government cannot decide on ExxonMobil's behalf who to sell the shares to, but noted that "we are implicated...