A. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A1. Request for Arbitration and Notice of Registration

1. On 20 December 2005, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) received a request for arbitration dated 14 December 2005 (“the Request”) from The Rompetrol Group N.V. (“TRG” or “the Claimant”) against the Republic of Romania (“Romania” or “the Respondent”).

2. TRG was described in the Request as a company incorporated on 4 November 1999 as a private limited liability company in The Netherlands and registered on 17 November 1999 in the commercial register of the Chamber of Commerce Rotterdam as No. 24297754. On 18 April 2000, the company changed its name from Waverton B.V. to The Rompetrol Group B.V. and, on 28 May 2002, it changed its legal form from a private limited liability company (B.V.) to a public limited liability company (N.V.).

3. The Request relates to a dispute arising from the Claimant’s investment in the Romanian oil sector and, in particular, the purchase of shares by the Claimant in Rompetrol Rafinare S.A. (“RRC”), a privatised Romanian company which owns and operates an oil refinery and petrochemical complex. The Claimant alleges that the Romanian government ordered ‘extraordinary and unreasonable’ investigations of RRC and its management, as well as ‘discriminatory and arbitrary’ treatment of the company, which according to the Claimant amount to violations of the Agreement on Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of The Netherlands and Romania which came into force on 1 February 1995 (“the BIT” or “the Treaty”). The Request invokes the ICSID arbitration provisions in the Treaty.

4. On 14 February 2006, the Acting Secretary-General of ICSID sent the Claimant and the Respondent a Notice of Registration in accordance with Article 36(3) of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (“ICSID Convention” or “Convention”).

5. In issuing the Notice, the Acting Secretary-General invited the Parties to proceed to constitute an Arbitral Tribunal as soon as possible in accordance with Rule 7(d) of the Centre’s Rules of Procedure for the Institution of Conciliation and Arbitration Proceedings.