Romanian authorities have given North Sea player TransAtlantic Petroleum of Calgary the nod to produce from three licenses awarded last year.

The Izvoru, Vanatori and Marsa licenses 100 kilometres west of Bucharest are the named after fields discovered by the ex-national oil company. The Calgarians can produce for 30 years provided they get flows going within the next three years.

The Romania royalty of up to 13.5 percent is based on field flows. Business tax in Romania is 16 percent.

The Company is completing an engineering reservoir study on the Izvoru license after a 3D survey, with flows due in 2008. Izvoru has produced 1.4 million barrels of oil from 26 wells, according to government records. All three licenses lie near infrastructure.

Vanatori and Marsa date to the 1970’s and have produced 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas.