OMV cannot sell the shares from Petrom to another company without the consent of the Romanian state, wrote on Facebook the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.

“Unfortunately, the launch of rumors seems to have turned into a political strategy and ‘superficial diplomatic action.’ As a series of scenarios are sent to the market about the sell Petrom’s shares to Gazprom I have to say: OMV cannot sell its Petrom shares to another company without the consent of the Romanian state. Also, I do not have such information. I consider them speculations and they are unfounded. Last year, I was the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment and I promoted in the Government, in February 2020 if I’m not mistaken, an Emergency Ordinance that was approved this year by the Parliament and is already a law that transposed a last article of the oil directive, as we call it, an article that was not transposed into Romanian legislation. Practically, this article says that, for reasons of national security, a member state may refuse to grant concessions for the exploration/exploitation of hydrocarbons, both oil and natural gas,” Popescu said , according to Agerpres.

According to the quoted minister, the Romanian state may, at any time, for reasons of national security, not agree to any transaction.

“And we’re not just talking about Petrom. We’re talking about any other transaction where we’re talking about oil agreements, which mean both oil and natural gas. They cannot be sold neither directly, nor indirectly, nor the shares behind some companies, that is to cede control to another company that owns oil agreements. This is provided by law. It can only be done with the consent of the Romanian state, and the Romanian state can refuse on the grounds of national security. National security is not negotiable, and energy security is an important part of it!,” the quoted source specified.

OMV Petrom ended the first half of this year with a net profit of 980 million lei, up 13% compared to the same period last year.