OIL AND GAS

A.        ADVISING INTERNATIONAL OIL AND GAS COMPANIES

We advise on exploration and production sharing, joint operation, concession, oil and gas transportation, gas station network operation and development, crude delivery agreements, tariff, tax,  and other regulatory issues. We negotiated on behalf of foreign investors the deregulation of the price of “newly” produced domestic gas. We advised on the privatization of state-owned logging and perforation services, and petroleum companies, drafted Petroleum Law, amending legislation, and obtained Opinion Letters issued by Romanian government agencies on issues of interest to foreign investors.

We advised:

• Exxon Corporation re exploration and production;

• Marathon Oil re exploration and production;

• Amoco Corporation re signing and performance of the first petroleum exploration and production sharing agreement in post-communist Romania;

• Canadian Oxy re signing and performance of a petroleum exploration and production sharing agreement;

• ARCO re a petroleum exploration and production sharing agreement;

• Chevron Corporation re joint venture with Arpechim Pitesti;

• Repsol re purchase of Libyan oilfields from Rompetrol;

• Amoco Petroleum Products re building of a gasoline distribution network in Romania;

• Schlumberger Netherlands re acquisition of state-owned Atlas Gip SA, a Romanian logging and perforation services company;

• Amoco Corporation re a gas enhancement recovery project;

• Piraeus Bank on behalf of Middle East investors re privatization of state-owned Petrom SA;

• Shell Aviation on a jet fuel venture;

• Glencore re crude delivery agreements;

• Amromco Energy re concessions of gas producing fields;

• Forest Oil Corporation re taxation of Romanian operations;
• Founders of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Operators’ Association.

• Merrill Lynch Commodities (Europe) re quarterly surveys of legislation regulating the physical gas trading.

• Zeta Petroleum re farm-in petroleum agreement for exploration development and production, and registration of a Romanian subsidiary.

B.       DRAFTING AND LOBBYING  FOR ISSUANCE OF ENABLING LEGISLATION

• Drafting and lobbying on behalf of Amoco Corporation re issuance of Law No. 66 of 1992 Concerning Special Incentives Granted to Foreign Investors Investing in Oil And Gas Exploration and Production in Romania. The issuance of this law made possible the signing in 1992 of the first three petroleum exploration and production sharing agreements between the Romanian Government and, respectively, Amoco, Shell and a consortium including  Enterprise Oil and Canadian Oxy.

• Drafting and lobbying in 1992, in relation with the issuance of the first Opinion Letters by the Ministry of Finance in post-communist Romania, with regard to the tax issues related to the exploration and production sharing agreements with Amoco and ARCO.

• Drafting and lobbying on behalf of Amoco Corporation re Petroleum Law No. 134 of 1995. We lobbied for provisions in line with the internationally recognized standards  in the oil and gas industry.

• Drafting and lobbying on behalf of Amromco Corporation re issuance of Order No. 49 of 2003, concerning the pricing of the “new gas” produced in Romania from newly discovered fields or following the rehabilitation of the existing fields by the Ministry of Industry and Resources for the issuance. This new natural gas pricing regulation was regarded as a major step towards liberalization of the natural gas market in Romania.

• Drafting and lobying on behalf of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Operators’ Association for the amendment of the Public Procurement Ordinance no. 60 of 2001.

• Advising the Petroleum Exploration and Production Operators’ Association with regard to the draft of the 2006 Petroleum Law.