Zamfirescu Racoti & Partners has successfully represented Romania's National Agency for Mineral Resources in arbitration against Chevron.
The award, rendered under the Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, established Chevron’s obligation to pay an amount of USD 73,450,000 plus interest (at the level of the reference rate of the National Bank of Romania plus 8% per annum from October 23, 2014 until the date of full payment), also covering all the legal costs.
The dispute arose from three petroleum agreements concluded between ANRM and Chevron in March 2011. According to a ZRP press release, "More precisely, the central core of the dispute was related to the obligations comprised in the Minimum Exploration Program and the necessity to pay to ANRM the value of the works not performed at the moment when the petroleum agreements were relinquished."
According to that same press release, “in international arbitration cases, in general, and in the field of energy, in particular, the situations in which the claims of a party are fully admitted are extremely rare. Our professional satisfaction is even greater as we find ourselves in such a situation, with the claims of the Romanian party being fully admitted and the claims of the adverse party being totally rejected."
And according to ZRP Managing Partner Cosmin Vasile, "although the core argument involved a specific legal issue, the arbitral case covered a wide range of disputed issues relating to the Petroleum Law, petroleum concession agreements for exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources (including unconventional resources such as shale gas), various factual details about the concrete manner of fulfilling contractual obligations during the period 2012-2014, as well as technical aspects regarding the petroleum operations undertaken by the title holder."
Vasile coordinated the ZRP team, which included Partner Alina Tugearu and Managing Associates Monica Strimbei and Cosmin Cojocaru.
