BP and LukOil interested in Petrom

Industry Ministry has suggested the Romanian Government to have at least 51% in SNP Petrom sold to a strategic investor. It chose this option from the three solutions proposed by the consultant for relinquishing control over the majority stake, Industry and Resources minister Dan Ioan Popescu says.
The Government is to issue a decision in this regard by May. The race for Petrom’s privatisation already sees big names on the international oil market interested.
UK’s British Petroleum, the largest oil corporation in the whole Europe and the second largest in the world and the Russian LukOil Group are seemingly interested in this privatisation, according to the latest info on the market, as reported by Mediafax.
In Bucharest at the end of last week, the Russian Prime Minister Mihail Kasianov said the Russian Government would support any Russian company interested to participate in Petrom’s privatisation.
Other companies such as OMV (Austria) and MOL (Hungary) have also shown interested to buy the controlling interests in Petrom so far and there are also powerful Romanian businessmen trying to position themselves as best as they can in the race for the privatisation of the company.
The consultant appointed for Petrom’s privatisation, that is the consortium comprising Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and ING Barings investment banks presented a judicial, technical, financial and environmental audit of the company to the officials of the Office for State’s Interests and Industrial Privatisation (OPSPI) in mid March. Petrom’s employees may buy up to 10% in SNP, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) may buy about 5% in it.
Industry Ministry officials say the stakes held by the Finance Ministry (10.2%) and by the Labour Ministry (1.4%) will be transferred to the Industry Ministry so that negotiations could be run by only one governmental institution.