Romania’s ruling party leader: Govt. reshuffle could happen by October

The Government could be reshuffled by October, Liviu Dragnea, the president of the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), said in a TV show, Agerpres reported. He said that prime minister Viorica Dăncilă will conduct an evaluation of all ministers by then. Afterwards, the PSD leadership will decide who will be replaced. “The prime minister – as I have talked to her, and I spoke with Mr. Tăriceanu as well – needs to present her own evaluation of the ministers. We, inside the PSD, within a reasonable time-frame, not a very long one, need to have a conversation about each minister. I think that by the end of this month, beginning of October, this should end with a reshuffling,” Dragnea said.

Source: Romania Insider

The Competition Council initiated an investigation into a possible abuse of a dominant position of Hidroelectrica

„The Competition Council has the suspicion that Hidroelectrica SA, through its bidding behavior, limited the amount of energy sold on some market segments (mainly on the Day Market) in order to offer higher prices on the Balancing Market PE), „the press release said.

Source: Agerpres, Hotnews, Economica

OMV, after meeting with Dragnea, confident that it will get „an acceptable legal framework” from the Government to give green light to the 1 billion euro investment in the Black Sea

Austrian company OMV is confident that this autumn will receive an acceptable legislative framework from the Romanian government, which will allow the company to give green light to an investment of about 1 billion euros in the Black Sea Neptune Deep perimeter, says Johann Pleininger , OMV head of the upstream sector. The statement comes after Rainer Seele, OMV’s chief executive, OMV Petrom’s main shareholder, met with PSD leader Liviu Dragnea on Wednesday. A visit to Dragnea’s office also made a delegation of ExxonMobil Exploration, OMV’s American partner in the Neptun Deep project.

Source: Profit

Dragnea: The offshore law will be adopted in three weeks. We talked with OMV and ExxonMobil

The deputy chairman, Liviu Dragnea, said on Sunday evening that he had a tense discussion with the representatives of OMV and ExxonMobil, who told them that they would decide whether or not to continue their investments in the Black Sea after seeing the final form of the offshore law. „CEO from OMV came to me, I think Tuesday, and ExxonMobil’s president in America next day. Sure, the subject was offshore law. They expressed their desire to continue investing in the Black Sea. Taking into account the liberty of gas exploitation, I told them that my last summer position did not change. An important part of gas production must be sold in Romania so that our economy can benefit from gas for 20-30 years and have economic independence from Russia. Our objective was to find a fair balance between the legitimate interests of our country and investors, „Liviu Dragnea told Antena 3.

Source: Energynomics, Digi 24, G4Media, Media fax

OMV will soon approve the € 1bn investment in the Black Sea Neptune block

The Austrian group OMV is confident that in the coming months Romania will develop an acceptable regulatory framework for its Black Sea exploration project so that the company will soon be able to give green light for an investment worth one billion euros, OMV’s up-front manager Johann Pleininger said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

Source: Energynomics