How does Petrom gain four times more than last year if it produces and sells less?

Petrom, Romania’s only oil and gas producer, in the first six months of this year generated income worth 1.5bn RON (366.8m euros), more than four times bigger than a year ago and almost double the entire gain of 2009. There were two factors with a decisive weight in the figure: the almost 50% higher oil prices and refining activities revamping. “There were two things that weighed a lot in our achieving this result. On the one hand, we cut costs on segments such as consultancy, and on the other hand we made restructuring moves. We sold the petrochemical segment of Arpechim, Arpechim is now operating only in line with necessities, and Doljchim complex was shut down. These can be classified as cost-cutting moves. On the other hand, we benefited from rising oil prices,” says Mariana Gheorghe, Petrom CEO. The company’s sales in H1 reached 8.3bn RON (over 2bn euros), up 14% from a year ago, even though the company’s hydrocarbon production fell by 3% during the analysed period and oil product sales contracted by 16% at group level. As the company did not produce more, nor sold more diesel oil and petrol, the solid figures are largely accounted for by the rising prices, both for oil and fuel.