Who Benefits from Adopting the New Offshore Law in Romania

A sequel to research from previous years, this article deals with a very controversial topic of recent times, namely the need to urgently start exploiting hydrocarbon reserves in the Black Sea continental shelf, and the benefits that the Romanian state can obtain from these operations. As a result of adopting new regulations regarding to the exploitation of natural gas in the Black Sea, which are more favorable than the previous ones, it seems that the investments for the effective start of exploitation have been unlocked, with benefits at multiple levels. To explain this situation, the first part of the paper conducts a brief inventory of previous measures of over-taxing the energy industry in Romania. Then, an analysis of the urgency of implementing these measures by Romania, primarily the solidarity tax, is conducted. Starting from these realities, in the second part of the article, a simulation is made of the gains that the Romanian state was estimated to be able to obtain from taxes, fees, and royalties according to the fiscal system, expressed in the Fiscal Code in force at that time, as well as according to the provisions of the Offshore Law of 2018 (in the first case study), and of the new Offshore Law adopted in 2022 (in the second case study).