The Government emergency ordinance no.106/2013 on the amendment and addition to the Petroleum Law no. 238/2004 has been published in the Official Gazette of Romania, part I, no. 767 of 9th December 2013.
The regulatory document brings amendments and additions with regard to the institution of transfer from the Petroleum Law no. 238/2004.
Therefore, it is noted that the holder of a petroleum agreement can transfer, totally or partially, to one or several legal entities the rights acquired and the liabilities assumed by agreement, only with the prior written approval of the competent authority.
The partial transfer may consider:
– a share from the rights acquired and from the liabilities assumed by means of the petroleum agreement regarding the entire oil area
– a share from the rights acquired and from the liabilities assumed by means of the petroleum agreement, with regard to an oil field;
– all the rights acquired and liabilities assumed by means of the petroleum agreement, with regard to an oil area.
In the last two cases mentioned above, the competent authority can delimit oil fields within an oil area.
The regulatory document specifies the conditions in which the delimitation of such oil fields is realized. Thus, upon the receipt of a request for oil field delimitation and for approving the partial transfer with regard to a oil field, the competent authority assesses with regard to the opportunity of delimiting the respective oil fields and informs the solicitors within 30 days as of the date of receiving the transfer request, whether or not it is considered to be appropriate that the oil fields should be delimited within the oil area, as soon as they are identified by the solicitors.
The opportunity analysis of the competent authority takes into consideration the possibility to identify or to exploit resources and the corroboration of the minimum work programme with the oil fields so that it allows evaluating the oil-bearing potential, the know-how input and the operating technologies.
If the oil field delimitation is considered to be appropriate, the partial transfer is approved by the competent authority, and the petroleum agreement is modified through an addendum which becomes effective as of the date of its approval by the Government; the transfer, as soon as it was approved by the competent authority, it becomes effective on the date of approval of the addendum.
The enforcement of the transfer and of the addendum gives rise to distinct and independent legal relationships between the competent authority, on one hand, and the holder of every oil field, on the other hand; the infringement of the liabilities corresponding to an oil field, the amendment, transfer or termination of a petroleum agreement regarding one of the oil fields shall have no effect on the petroleum agreement as far as the other oil fields are concerned.
The addendum shall establish the method in which the works from the minimum programme provided in the petroleum agreement shall be allocated between the oil field holders; through this allocation, the minimum programme cannot be decreased.
In the case in which the same deposit is exploited in two or more oil fields within the same oil area, in order to determine the applicable percentage in the view of establishing the oil royalty, the gross production extracted from the entire deposit shall be taken into consideration.
Persons who acquire a share from the rights and who assume a share from the liabilities with regard to the entire oil area have joint liability. Persons who acquire rights and who assume liabilities with regard to the same oil field have joint liability.
The persons who acquire rights and who assume liabilities with regard to an oil field, are particularly in charge of the persons who acquire rights and assume liabilities with regard to another oil field.
:: The source: JURIDICE.ro
Denis BORTIS
