STEPHEN BIRRELL, GENERAL MANAGER OF STERLING RESOURCES:  "We have invested over USD 65 million in the concessions of the Black Sea and Sud Craiova perimeters"

Cristina Mihalaşcu

Sterling Resources has invested over USD 65 million in the perimeters of the Black Sea and Sud Craiova, dug five wells on land and at sea, and acquired over 4000 seismic profiles, said Stephen Birrell, general manager of Sterling yesterday, as part of the investigation of the Commission for Industry of the Chamber of Deputies.

According to the head of the investigation, chairman Iulian Iancu, the contract that Sterling signed with the Romanian state estimated the operating costs over a three year period would reach USD 450 million, whereas Sterling said they would only reach 8 million.

When discussing this discrepancy, Birrell said it was caused by the fact that it includes the costs of the post-exploration stage, which were not fixed before the discovery and the sale of the natural gas reserves.

The gas reserves in the two perimeters amount to 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas, without oil reserves, as, according to the director of Sterling, oil has never been exploited in the Midia area.

He added that the crude oil reserves were only found in Ukraine, which dug a well in the Romanian territorial waters.

Birrell denied the allegations of the press which claim that Sterling did not prove it had the technical abilities needed for oil exploration and exploitation, saying that these abilities were certified in 1992 by the National Authority for Mineral Resources (ANRM), which also granted the company the oil activities operator status.

"ANRM has never requested a license for oil operations, not even the Environmental and Water Authorities did, even though we had the documents which would certify our abilities", Sterling director said.

According to Birrell, Sterling Resources has been wrongfully accused lately, of turning the exploration agreement it has concluded with the Romanian State into an exploitation agreement, which is untrue as Sterling had received the exploration rights as far back as 1992.