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Main regulations
– Petroleum Law no. 238 of 2004 (“Petroleum Law”)
– Methodological Norms for the Application of Petroleum Law (“Norms”)
– Technical instructions, and other regulations issued by the National Agency for Mineral Resources
– Gas Law no. 351 of 2004 (“Gas Law”)
1. Legal Framework
Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34 of 2006 on the Award of Public Contracts, Public Works Concession Contracts and Services Concession Contracts (“GEO 34”) implements the main provisions of the relevant EU Directives with regard to the public procurement.
GEO 34 provides for the following procedures to be followed for the award of a procurement contract:
a. Open public tender – takes place in a single stage and any interested party may submit a bid.
Description of domestic sector
1. Describe the domestic natural gas sector, including the natural gas production, liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage, pipeline transportation, distribution, commodity sales and trading segments.
Romania is the largest gas producer in Central and Eastern Europe. Last year Romania produced over 12 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
This is a summary of the requirements for access to the Romanian electricity trading market.
I. The electricity trading market
The Romanian electricity trading market is structured as follows:
1. The Wholesale Electricity Market includes the following specific markets:
This article presents the relevant legal requirements concerning the notification of the intent to acquire the position of significant shareholder in an Investment Company, as well as some considerations based on our recent practice with the Securities Commission.
Art. 7 (1) (6) of Government Emergency Ordinance no.99/2006 on Credit Institutions and Capital Adequacy defines the Investment Company as a legal person whose regular business is the provision of investment services to third parties and/or the performance of investment banking activities.
The legal regime of the employment and assignment of the aliens in Romania is regulated by Emergency Government Ordinance no. 56 of 2007 Regarding the Employment and Assignment of the Aliens and Emergency Government Ordinance no. 194 of 2002 Regarding the Aliens Regime.
As defined by Emergency Government Ordinance no. 56, the alien is the individual who does not have Romanian citizenship or the citizenship of another state member of the European Union or the European Economic Space.
The recent decision no. 962 of June 4, 2008 of the Bucharest Tribunal set a precedent in Romania regarding the protection of the product form, and packaging shape of the product by registered trademarks.
The plaintiff, Ferrero SpA of Italy (“Ferrero”), is the owner of internationally well-known trademarks such as DUPLO, ROCHER, and KINDER BUENO. These products are protected by sixteen trademarks registered in accordance with the Madrid Agreement. These trademarks protect the form and packaging shape of Ferrero products. The above court decision held that the protection conferred to the form and packaging shape of the products by the registered trademarks of Ferrero is fully enforceable under Romanian law.
Two recent court cases confirmed the statutory protection of the land easements in relation with gas production operations.
Art. 86 of the consolidated Gas Law no. 341 of 2004 („Gas Law”) provides that the concessionaires of gas production perimeters have:
a. the right of use in relation to to the necessary works for the rehabilitation of the gas production installation;
The Law no. 344 of 2005 on Measures for Insuring the Compliance with the Intellectual Property Rights within Customs Proceedings (“Law no. 344”) entered into force on February 3, 2006. Law no. 344 brought significant amendments to the procedure introduced by Law no. 202 of 2000.
According to Law no. 344, in order to have an intellectual property right monitored by the customs, the owner of an intellectual property right (“IP Owner”) must file with the Customs Authority a special Declaration whereby:
The physical electricity in Romania can be traded on the following markets:
1. the Wholesale Electricity Market regulated by the Commercial Code of Wholesale Electricity Market of 2004, which includes the Bilateral Agreements Energy Market, the Day-Ahead Market (‘DAM”), the Balancing Market, and the Ancillary Services Market; and
2. the Retail Energy Market;
3. the Green Certificates Market.
The strategic importance of petroleum to both consumers and producers, has caused petroleum contracts to retain certain fundamental features over the time. One of the most important such feature is the stability clause whose goal is to guarantee that the terms and conditions of a contract are -frozen- from the date of its conclusion and during the entire term of the contract. (1)
A number of countries, including {but not limited to) those with proven petroleum reserves, such as UK and Norway, do not feel compelled to offer stabilization provisions to attract foreign investments, since they have a good track record in dealing with investors from other states.