Halliburton Company has eyed two areas with potential in Romania, increasing production from mature oil fields and development of deepwater projects in the Black Sea, said the Eastern Hemisphere president of the American group, Joe Rainey, informs Mediafax. Halliburton representative met with Prime Minister Victor Ponta, meeting in which these company plans have been mentioned.

In any initiative the American company initiates in the oil industry in Romania, Romanian specialists have to be engaged, reads the Government press release. Regarding this meeting, the Prime Minister said:

“We want Romania to become for American companies in the oil industry a point of regional operations for South East Europe and Eastern neighborhood. Halliburton is welcome in Romania and we would appreciate the diversification of its activities here in the oil and gas industry.”

Halliburton Energy Services Romania SRL has already provided 9.76 million dollars’ worth of services and equipment (excluding VAT) for the Black Sea drilling program conducted by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, and OMV Petrom. Halliburton is one of the largest global suppliers of products and services in the oil and gas industry, with over 80,000 employees in approximately 80 countries.

The conflict with Russia, from conventional weapons to economic weapons

Investments in energy independence may be more useful for European security in relations with Russia than investments increased to 2% of GDP for military weapons, believes the Prime Minister of Romania. NATO Member States obligation to increase to2% of GDP the financing of their armies were recalled in recent decisions of NATO summit held in Wales.

“Romania is investing more in defense spending, obviously that NATO’s decision is welcome, but I still think the real battle with the Russian Federation will not be with conventional weapons, but with energy. If Romania fails to secure energy independence for Romania and Moldova at least, all the goals we set at the economic level can be achieved”, said Prime Minister Victor Ponta, stating further:

“We have growth in agriculture, industrial production, exports, but all depend on energy security especially since the political situation in the region, in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine, of this situation of instability, of violation of an order that we believed to be established, leads to the biggest challenge – energy security.”