Gabriel Comanescu won a $100m contract for Turkish Petrom

Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP), a company specialised in marine drilling operations, part of Upetrom group owned by Constanta businessman Gabriel Comanescu, last year sealed a contract worth 100m dollars with Turkey’s National Oil and Gas Company (TPAO) for the construction of an offshore platform.

“This contract means GSP’s entrance on the market of offshore construction services. The contract includes the design, construction and fitting of a drilling/production platform, as well as of a submarine pipe for the gas deposit of the western sector of the Black Sea,” the company’s representatives say. Work should be completed by 2010, and will require around 340 GSP employees to do it. To win the tender, GSP fought with companies of Turkey, Italy and Norway. The company succeeded in hitting targets related to turnover and net income and has similar estimates for this year. “We reached targets set for last year. Turnover stood at 282.5m dollars (192.1m euros), while net income amounted to 82.8m dollars (55.7m euros). This year, we expect to generate approximately the same values as last year, plus or minus 10%. We hope to get better results owing to recent years’ investments and activity expansion on the segment of offshore constructions,” the company’s representatives also say. According to them, the oil barrel price decline is not hurting them directly and at any rate price signals are quite upbeat, given recent developments. GSP owns five offshore drilling platforms it took over from Petrom in 2005, but announced its plans to build another two, plus a multipurpose ship. “(…) The total value of this project stands at 410m dollars. As for getting loans during this period, there are difficulties at the level of all economic segments. Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry hasn’t been spared, either,” add the company’s representatives. According to them, the company now has loans worth around 200m dollars, due not later than 2013. The company is not considering selling a platform to pay for its investment programme. GSP invested 7m dollars in a training centre. At the same time, it says it plans to hire around 200 people this year.