Oil Co Sterling Frowns On Romanian Parliament's Inquiry Report

On Monday, Sterling sent a letter to the Lower House speaker Roberta Anastase, contesting the conclusions of the report of the Committee of Industries and Services, an opinion previously notified to the President Traian Basescu, the Prime Minister Emil Boc and to the heads of parliamentary parties.

 

Romania’s parliamentary subcommittee in charge with investigating Sterling Resources' Black Sea exploration contract approved June 25, with 13 "pros" and 3 abstentions, a report that sets up 60 days for the Government to decide on annulling or renegotiating the deal after the Parliament adopts the report.

 

The committee has decided that, within 60 days since the Parliament approves its report, the Government must take a decision to either annul or renegotiate the basic contract and the additional document.

 

The Chamber of Deputies will hold an extraordinary session, on July 27, to debate on the Sterling report.

 

The report concluded that the appendix of the oil-drilling contract closed between Romania’s National Mineral Resources Agency ANRM and Sterling Resources was illegally drawn up, that ANRM had no Government authorization to seal the additional act, that the government’s report leading to validating the appendix was drawn up based on unreal data and information and that both Sterling and the local authority did not fulfill their obligations stipulated in the previous additional contracts.

 

The conclusions of this report were disputed by Sterling, on not being accurate.

 

Sterling’s vice-president Stephen Birrell said in the letter that he had sent Roberta Anastase, July 9, the documents with counter-arguments regarding the conclusions of the report.

 

The same documents were sent July 6, 2009 to the Romanian President Traian Basescu, Premier Emil Boc and to all the heads of the parliamentary parties, pointing to major errors and accusations brought in the report, Birell said. He added the company is worried the recommendations in the report are grounded on false and incorrect conclusions, therefore the validity of some recommendations being questionable.

 

The lease in the Black Sea, granted by the Government in 1992, was extended, successively, by all Romania’s governments, the decision of the latest Tariceanu Government of November 2008 not changing the content of the agreement.

 

An appendix of the oil-drilling contract closed between ANRM and Sterling Resources refers explicitly to the dispute between Romania and Ukraine, specifying that the exploration right will become an exploitation one after The Hague Court’s decision.

 

The International Court of Justice at The Hague drew on February 3 a new maritime border between Romania and Ukraine, settling a decade-old dispute.

 

Thus, the Court’s decision and an appendix to the exploration contract give Sterling exploration rights in blocks XIII Pelican and XV Midia in the Black Sea.