A gift of black gold

In the wake of recent oil price hikes, Romania has become the European country where petrol is the most expensive (relative to purchasing power). In an investigative report into a privatisation deal which it calls the “bargain of the century,” Jurnalul Naţionalreports on the consequences of the 2004 sale of a majority holding in the Romanian national oil company Petrom. The 51 percent stake, which was sold to the Austrian group OMV for US$1.5 billion dollars (at the time €2.04 billion) has resulted “in the Romanian state’s handover of oil and gas worth 14 billion dollars.” But that is not all, the newspaper devotes its front page to the 24-million euro "cost" to the exchequer. That is the 2011 estimate put forward by Prime Minister Emil Boc of the value "of the special terms granted by the Romanian state to OMV, which have given it an annual tax break of several million euros per year."