ANRM head Gelu Maracineanu said companies from Canada, UK, and the USA were among the foreign companies interested in the bid, without revealing their names.
The agency is now marking the perimeters to be auctioned off. There will be 30 oil blocks, no larger than 1,000 square kilometers, Maracineanu told MEDIAFAX.
The winners will be announced next June.
As for Canadian company Sterling Resources, Maracineanu said it did not express its interest yet, adding that ANRM does not restrict the access of any company in such bids.
Early this year, the International Court of Justice at The Hague drew a new maritime border between Romania and Ukraine, settling a decade-old dispute. The ruling gives Romania 9,700 square kilometers of exclusive economic zone, accounting for 79.34% of the 12,000 sq km disputed surface.
Sterling Resources is investigated by the Romanian Parliament for allegedly illegal methods of obtaining exploitation rights over two oil blocks in the Black Sea.