Romanian Pres Asks Govt To Settle Sterling's Black Sea Exploitation Issue

A solution should be found on that issue, even if a legal dispute would be required, he added.

 

"I would like very much to settle the public dispute related to Sterling, namely the Black Sea lease. I most certainly have my own points of view, which I would not yet say, but I ask the Government, the two parties, subject to their force within the Parliament, to give a solution, an explanation; we meanwhile see our future actions, even if we could legally approach the matter," Basescu said.

 

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc stated Monday that the emergency ordinance by which the contract between ANRM and Canadian company Sterling for the exploitation of Black Sea reserves was turned from a drilling contract into a lease contract was still at the Parliament and could still be rejected.

 

By the contract signed between ANRM and Sterling Resources, the Romanian state has allegedly transferred to Sterling the oil and gas resources in the two blocks stipulated in the contract before the decision of the International Court of Justice on the maritime border between Romania and Ukraine.

 

The International Court of Justice at The Hague recently 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.

 

Romania’s Government Control Body began Monday to check, at the ANRM headquarters, the documents allowing Canada’s Sterling Resources to extract crude oil and natural gas from the Black Sea.

 

The former PM said the media frenzy launched lately by the current government on this issue was meant to distract the population from the serious social problems and from its failure in observing the electoral promises.