Chevron will pay Romania’s mineral resources agency ANRM $73.45mn after it cancelled three concession agreements, according to an arbitration ruling, the Romanian finance ministry announced on February 2.

Chevron had given up the concessions and ended shale gas exploration in Romania, saying the projects could not compete with other projects in the company’s portfolio in terms of profitability.

Chevron will have to pay ANRM interest rates calculated as of October 2014 and arbitration fees paid by the Romanian mineral resources agency, according to the decision of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

In March 2011, ANRM and Chevron Romania Holdings concluded three concession agreements for exploration, development and exploitation of three perimeters in Romania, the EX 17 - Costinesti, the EX - 18 Vama Veche and the EX - 19 Adamclisi permimeters, which envisaged minimum obligations for Chevron.

However, in November 2014, the US company informed the Romanian mineral resources agency that it was giving up the concession agreements. However, ANRM refused to issue the concession termination decision, claiming Chevron had broken the legislation, namely that the company had not made available to the competent authority “the amount representing the value of works envisaged in the minimum exploration programme agreed and of the development and exploitation works, maturing at the date the notification was sent and which had not been executed for reasons attributable to the owner of the oil agreement.”

In 2015, Chevron asked the arbitration court to look into the matter, claiming it had fulfilled its obligations in the agreements concluded with ANRM.

Chevron’s shale gas exploration has also been the cause of controversy within Romania, facing harsh opposition from environmentalists.