Decisions to exploit gas from the Black Sea perimeters

RADIO ROMANIA NEWS - Oil companies draw attention to the risk that gas exploitation decisions in the Black Sea perimeters will be postponed again due to provisions included in the proposed amendments to the offshore law.

Although the project is a step forward from the current legal framework, taxation remains an unresolved issue, said participants at a meeting on this topic organized by the "Intelligent Energy" Association, mainly referring to the taxation on additional income and the ceiling set for investment deduction.

Bogdan Isopescu explains: “Some operators expected the total elimination of the additional income tax. In the new formula, this charging gradually intervenes for all the gas sold with more than 85 lei per megawatt. The second tax problem is that operators will only be able to deduct their investments up to 40% of the additional income tax, given that they expected an unlimited deduction, as provided by the Fiscal Code for other types of investments. The most common argument is that this type of taxation does not exist when the companies obtained the oil agreements on the basis of which they subsequently followed investments. Finally, a third problem is the ambiguity in Article 20, which allows the state to intervene in crisis situations on the market so that gas volumes are directed strictly to Romania. The companies say they do not understand how the rulers came to these figures and predictions and say that in the meetings so far politicians have not presented calculations or impact studies on which to start a well-founded negotiation. They hope that these talks will continue so as not to re-enter a deadlock that does not benefit either investors or the Romanian economy as a whole. However, I would like to remind you that while Romania continues to analyze the opportunities, Turkey has decided to reduce the tax and will be ready to put into production the gases discovered off the Black Sea starting with the year 2023."

The draft amendment to the offshore law is currently in the Senate, the first chamber notified in the parliamentary route.

The document is in the emergency procedure, and the leaders of the governing coalition parties, who have put together their proposals, want it adopted by the end of the current session.

Translated by: Radu Matei