Minor differences
Iranian and Romanian presidents said countries will maintain friendly ties
Posted: 28 August 2006
 Send this article
 Print this article
Amidst the rig disputes, Iranian and Romanian presidents stressed the friendly ties between the two nations and expressed readiness to expand relations in all field, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday.
Last week, state-owned Petroiran Development Company (PDC) urged the UAE to help return an offshore drilling rig, which it said, was hijacked by Romanian Company Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP).
PDC said the GSP-owned Fortuna rig is still under rental contract to Iran's Oriental Oil Kish when it was "illegally" and "clandestinely" taken out of the Iranian waters.
But according to GSP in an interview with Pipeline, it was PDC who violated international norms by "holding hostage" one of its rigs despite court orders to the contrary.
In an indirect reference to the dispute, the two leaders said they believed it is quite natural that trade companies of Iran and Romania have minor differences.
Ahmadinejad and Basescu stressed that such differences would not damage good mutual relations, according to the IRNA report.
"Two of our rigs - Fortuna and Orizont " were held hostage in the Iranian waters despite the termination of contract four months ago," Gabriel Comanescu, President of GSP told Pipeline. Comanescu said his company filed the case against Petroiran in a government court in Tehran.
He added: "This is a complete violation of human rights as the rigs and its crew was moored in the Iranian waters even after the termination of contract."
"As a gesture of goodwill GSP allowed the rigs to continue its work schedule for three months since the date of termination of contract on April 1, 2006 in order to secure the well."
Comanescu said they have arranged the clearance for the boats to take out Fortuna, based on a court decree from Queshm and an implementation order from Hengam Island security forces.
The other rig, although already cleared three months ago from Kish Court is still held hostage by PDC, Comanescu added. "How can it take three months to implement safety procedures, which have not even started? We even offered that we will do the necessary safety procedures in line with international norms."
He said the rigs were hired by Dubai-based Oriental Oil Co and without the consent of GSP further rented to PDC. GSP had terminated the contract with the company on account of breach of contractual conditions namely failure to open an acceptable L/C as security and non-payment of invoices for several months currently exceeding $8 million.
Denying the allegations made by PDC in the media recently, Comanescu said GSP has full right to take out the rigs post termination of its contract with Oriental Oil Co. Moreover, GSP later discovered that the Dubai-based company had never existed and it was never registered with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said.
"PDC's illegal actions are clearly blatant violation of all international norms, conventions and practices. We have all intentions to take on these violations in competent court of law and pursue justice," said Comanescu.
Reports said the Iranian servicemen had left the rig, but Iranian police officers were still aboard for inspections.
Romania's Rompres news agency reported that the Romanian Foreign Ministry had instructed the country's charge d'affaires in Iran to negotiate with Iranian officials on the dispute.
Iran's Ambassador to Romania, Ali Akbat Farazi, on Wednesday denied allegations about the attack, saying the rig was boarded by police, who arrived on ships to enforce a court order.
The police took ships because the crew did not allow a police helicopter to land on the rig earlier, he added.
The ambassador said that the Iranian authorities did not act against Romania as a country, but were only dealing with a commercial dispute between oil companies, also denying that the Iranian military had fired at the rig. |
