Romanian State Firm Nuclearelectrica Seeks a Third of Niger’s Blocked Uranium Stockpile

Romania’s semi-state nuclear company Nuclearelectrica has approached Nigerien authorities and Sopamin, the state mining heritage company, about acquiring roughly a third of the 1,000-tonne uranium stockpile currently held at a site near Niamey airport, according to documents obtained by two African media outlets. The approach follows a visit by Nuclearelectrica representatives to Niamey on April 20, 2026, which reportedly produced a preliminary agreement in principle from Nigerien authorities. No contract has been signed, and no volumes or price have been made public.

A stockpile under legal hold

The uranium in question comes from Somaïr, the mine Niger nationalized in 2025 after decades of French operation by Orano. Orano still claims a share of the material and, in September 2025, obtained a ruling from an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal ordering Niger not to sell, transfer, or facilitate the transfer of the stockpile while arbitration over Orano’s claims continues. That order has not been lifted. Any sale to Romania, or to anyone else, before the arbitration concludes would be moving ahead of an active legal restraint on the exact asset in question, not around a settled dispute.

Part of a wider pattern, not an isolated approach

Niger’s uranium sector has been in continuous restructuring since the July 2023 coup: Somaïr’s nationalization, and Orano’s operating permit at Imouraren, one of the world’s largest uranium deposits at an estimated 200,000 tonnes, withdrawn in June 2024. Niger’s mining minister said in May 2026 that “certain companies and countries” had expressed interest in the stockpile and that discussions were underway with buyers he described as serious, without naming them. Nuclearelectrica’s approach is the first named party to surface publicly. For a country that sent most of its uranium to France for over fifty years, testing a Romanian state buyer is itself a signal of where Niamey wants its resource relationships to sit now.

Why the timing matters

Security is part of the backdrop. An armed group attacked near Niamey airport in late January 2026, close to the site where the stockpile is stored, renewing questions about how secure the material actually is where it sits. A government sitting on a contested, exposed asset has a reason to want it resolved, whether through sale, relocation, or a settlement with Orano, rather than left in place indefinitely as both a legal liability and a physical target.

What this tests

The direct question is commercial: can Niger find a buyer willing to take on an asset with an unresolved ownership claim attached to it. The larger question is about precedent. If Niamey proceeds with any transfer while the ICSID order stands, it would signal that AES states are willing to treat nationalized resource assets as saleable regardless of pending international arbitration, not just regardless of the original operator’s objections. That is a materially different risk proposition for any future buyer of AES mineral assets, since it implies the same government could authorize a sale over an active legal restraint more than once.

What to watch

First, whether the ICSID arbitration produces a ruling, a settlement, or continued deadlock, since that outcome likely determines whether any Nuclearelectrica deal can move from principle to contract. Second, whether Orano responds to this specific approach the way it did to earlier reports of shipments leaving Niger, by publicly condemning any transfer it was not party to. Third, whether other buyers named or unnamed move in parallel, since a single approach reported through leaked documents is a data point, not yet evidence of a competitive process. Until the legal question is settled, the commercial one stays provisional no matter how many governments circle it.