All newspapers today read about the International Court of Justice decision in Romania's favor in the dispute with Ukraine over the territorial delimitation of the Black Sea continental plateau. Elsewhere in the news, the Interior ministry seems to have found a new leader in the person of Social Democrat Dan Nica, also deputy PM.
Cotidianul reads that Romania won at Hague today 30 billion dollars, in theory. However, the resources which would offer Romania energy independence are not yet certified and only 35% of the resources can be brought to surface in the exceptional situation that the oil price will increase to stimulate exploitation interests.
The 9,700 square meters of sea won by Romania are important for the resources it hosts. According to some official estimations, the potential totals, in the most optimistic scenario to 12 million tons of oil and 120 billion of cubic meters of gases.
Romania's representative Bogdan Aurescu declared that the area received by Romania is set to own some 70 billion cubic meters of gas and 12 million tons of oil. The newspaper computed Aurescu's estimations and came up with a total of over 30 billion dollars.
However, a part of the area has already been offered for exploitation to Sterling Resources, a company from Canada and to Petrom. Sterling Resources was compelled to stop explorations due to the dispute with Ukraine but a contract was signed last year, ruling that the company can continue. Moreover, Petrom still has the right to exploit the area for another five years. So, of a total of 9,700 km there are only 6,000 km open to public tenders.
Nonetheless, the newspaper reads that most of the resources will have every chance of remaining right where they are because the industry works with an exploitation factor of 20 to 35% recovery on average. Thus, companies will
