The offshore law will be amended by the end of this parliamentary session, meaning this summer, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said, urging investors waiting for the law to unblock investments to have “a little more” patience.

“It will be a parliamentary initiative of the coalition and I am convinced that it will be approved by the end of this parliamentary session. I want a broader consensus than the consensus in the coalition and I am convinced that we will have colleagues in parliament outside the coalition who will vote with us the change of the law. You must still have a little patience,” said Popescu, according to Agerpres.

The minister said that Wednesday is the final deadline for submitting the offer regarding the purchase of the 50% package of the Neptun Deep project, owned by ExxonMobil.

“Our company Romgaz, mostly owned by the ministry, will submit an offer for the purchase of this package. In parallel, we also worked on the Offshore Law,” Popescu continued.

According to him, Romania is one of the EU gas producers, and the energy mix and the transition to clean energy depend on natural gas.

The deep Neptun Deep perimeter has gas reserves estimated at 42-84 billion cubic meters.