Romania – The Neptun gas project in the Black Sea, close to Romania’s shore, is caught in a diplomatic spat due to Austria’s disagreement on allowing Romania into the Schengen zone.

The Austrian company OMV Petrom, which controls 50% of the Neptun Deep gasfield in the Black Sea, able to pump 10 billion cubic metres per year as of 2027, objects a Romanian law on offshore gas sales. The other 50% share is owned by the Romanian state. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in September that his country was unwilling to modify the law governing offshore gas sales as long as Austria vetoes Romania’s entry into Schengen. “We will move forward based on the current form of the offshore law, just as Romania will continue to support its arguments regarding the accession to the Schengen area, including in the European courts, if Austria does not change its position”, Ciolacu said after a meeting with representatives of OMV in Bucharest, on 18 September.

In June, OMV took Romania to an international court, following Romania’s change of her law governing offshore gas sales. The Romanian law was modified in order to guarantee a government veto over private contracts in case of “emergency situations”. In response, Prime Minister Ciolacu threatened to take Austria to court and claim up to 2% of her economic output, considering Romania being kept out of Schengen for more than a decade to be a real damage for his country.

Asked by the Financial Times, the Romanian minister of energy Sebastian Burduja told that the dispute should not be reduced to a “tit for tat” in the sense that “you give us Schengen, we give you gas from the Black Sea”.  According to Burduja, the law on offshore gas simply allows the government to intervene in commercial relations with private customers on “certain emergency situation”. This peculiar provision is “not entirely clear” for OMV.
The minister of energy also told the Financial Times that Romania was “extremely disappointed” about being unable to join Schengen. Austria’s veto “seemed like a political decision that had nothing to do with our country’s preparedness”, he added.

According to Sebastian Burduja, “that gas for sure will strengthen regional security. It’s not just for Romania, it’s for the entire region, including Austria”.