Romania's president Traian Basescu questioned on Saturday a 1.5 billion euro sale of the country's largest oil firm Petrom to Austria's OMV, saying it would be re-examined by his office.
The former government of ex-communist Social Democrat party (PSD) sold a majority in Petrom to OMV last year as a part of an agreement with the EU candidate's international lenders. "I have doubts about the correctness of the privatisation," Basescu told reporters after returning from his visit to the United States.
He did not elaborate but said his advisors and experts would analyse the contract with OMV in the coming days. He also said the terms of the deal might be revealed to the public after the review.
Local media have quoted Basescu as saying during his trip to the US that the Balkan state has made a mistake when it put its whole crude resources into hands of a private company.
The presidential powers are limited to raising the issue with other state authorities such as the anti-monopoly office, which can launch an official inquiry into the deal.
Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said in reaction to earlier Basescu's comments that certain terms of the contract were not favourable for Romania, but added questioning of the deal would harm the country in the eyes of foreign investors.
"If Romania is going to annul another privatisation deal, this will make foreign investors doubtful and will also show instability of the business environment," Tariceanu was quoted as saying by daily Adevarul.
Basescu's latest remarks follow his recent statement questioning Petrom's pricing policy after consecutive hikes to the fuel prices. Petrom said recently its pricing policy was a result of large swings in the global oil market.
Petrol prices in the country of 22 million, which hopes to join the European Union in 2007, climbed to roughly 3.7 new lei ($1.31) in 2005, from around 27,000 old lei ($0.95) per litre last year.
Petrom's net profit jumped to 601 million new lei in the first half of this year from 109 million in the same period of 2004. Its reserves are estimated at around 1 billion barrels of oil.
The state still holds 40.74 percent of Petrom, which drills around 5.5 million tonnes of crude and 6.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, while 6.23 percent trades on the Bucharest bourse.