Economy of Romania

Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Tuesday, on the Tuzla Airdrome, after having visited the Ocean Endeavour rig whereby ExxonMobil and Petrom are carrying out gas exploration drills in the Romanian Black Sea deepwater, that "in three to four years" Romania and Moldova must be as little as possible dependent on gas imports.

Romania has notched up a positive balance of around 14 billion euro with the EU since it joined the European club in 2007, according to a report from the Finance Ministry.

It has received some 24.6 billion euro from the EU budget since 2007, and has paid back some 10.2 billion euro, the report said.

Romania is to open a legal case against Italian energy holding Enel at the Paris-based International Court of Arbitration for breaching privatization terms concerning the sale of the local company, Electrica Muntenia Sud.

Austrian OMV announced that it had found a new oil reservoir in Romania's Black Sea shallow-water Istria XVIII offshore perimeter.

The reservoir identified at exploration well Marina 1 was reported to have a production potential of 1,500 to 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), according to reports of OMV Petrom, as cited by money.bg.

OMV Petrom, the largest oil and gas producer in South-Eastern Europe announces the success of an exploration well drilled in the Black Sea's shallow waters, where tests point to a 1,500-2,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE)/day production potential, according to a company release remitted to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

The Romanian government on Wednesday announced the launch of the sale of a 51-per-cent stake in the electricity distributor Electrica, from which it hopes to raise up to 1.95 billion lei (some 435 million euro).

The sale forms a major part of the Romania's privatisation strategy, which has been agreed with the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

President of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL, in opposition) Vasile Blaga stated, on Wednesday, following the meeting with the joint International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and European Commission (EC) delegation, that the Democrat Liberals and Liberals demand the suspension of the gas price liberalization.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has booked the entire capacity tendered by the Hungarian side of the Arad - Szeged gas pipeline, chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' Committee for Industries and Services Iulian Iancu told a conference on energy this Monday.

BELGRADE - Serbia is using only 30 per cent of its potential in terms of agricultural and food exports to the European market, as there is not enough surplus of goods, Milorad Sredanovic, Delta Agrar's Vice-President for agriculture said on Monday.