Romania approves five oil, gas concession agreements

The concession agreements are between the National Agency for Mineral Resources (NAMR) and East West Petroleum Corp., Universal Premium, Clara Petroleum, MOL Hungary in partnership with Expert Petroleum, the government said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

NAMR awarded the concessions as early as June 30, 2010, however according Australian upstream company ADX Energy, Romania repeatedly failed to approve the agreements due to changes in the government. ADX Energy got an a nod to start works on the Romania's Parta oil field last week, when the government cleared another four licences.

The duration of the contracts for EX-2 Tria, EX-11 Buzias, EX-6 Curtici, EX-4 Tulca and EX-9 Paulis is set at 30 years and includes an extension option until the exhaustion of the oil reserves, up to a maximum of 45 years, government spokesman Andrei Zaharescu said at a session on Tuesday.

Romania's Universal Premium got approval for works on EX-11 Buzias and EX-9 Paulis.

Canada's East West Petroleum Corp., formerly Avere Energy Inc., got the green light for EX-2 Tria in partnership with Serbia's Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), as NIS acquired 85% interest in Ex-2 Tria in 2011.

Romania's Expert Petroleum and Hungary's MOL will start works on the EX-6 Curtici field. The two companies have signed a 25 years contract, under which Expert Petroleum undertook field enhancement works to increase production and reserves for MOL.

UK-based Clara Petroleum will develop the EX-4 Tulca concession area.