The New Strategy Center, in partnership with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), organized in Bucharest, on Tuesday, 29 October, a seminar dedicated to critical infrastructure protection in the energy sector. The event brought together representatives of relevant institutions in Romania with responsibilities in critical infrastructure protection and combating certain categories of hybrid threats, NSC and NUPI experts, representatives of OMV Petrom, given the significant role the company plays in the implementation of the Neptun Deep offshore project. The discussions were joined by Norwegian representatives from GASSCO, the Norwegian gas transit operator, and Equinor, the Norwegian state oil and gas company.

The seminar is part of the project Strategic Initiative for the Defense of Critical Maritime Infrastructure (SIDMI), supported by the Romania-Norway Bilateral Relations Fund 2014-2021.

The seminar included three panels. The discussions started with an analysis of the energy resources in the Black Sea and their geopolitical importance, given by Sergiu Mitrescu, Program Director at NSC. The second session was dedicated to hybrid threats and had as speakers Dr. Jakub Godzimirski, Research Professor at NUPI, and George Scutaru, CEO of NSC. The last session of the day addressed the private company perspective, with presentations by Simon Daniel Maxwell, Senior Project Manager for Marine Energy at OMV Petrom; Are Jacobssen, Security Manager, GASSCO and Per Olav Floss, Senior Advisor for Maritime Security, Equinor.

The exchange of expertise between the Romanian and Norwegian participants at the seminar contributed to a better understanding of the security challenges in the North Sea and Black Sea area, including hybrid threats to critical energy infrastructure, an important area in both Norway and Romania.

The event is part of the New Strategy Center’s ongoing efforts to increase expertise at the national level in countering hybrid threats that may affect Romania’s interests in the offshore Black Sea area, in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.