Jack Cutișteanu turns the light on at Petrom for 35m euros

Petprod, one of the leading energy traders on the Romanian market, has become the latest energy supplier for Petrom, the biggest company on the Romanian market, which had previously received energy directly from state-held Complexul Energetic Craiova (Craiova Energy Complex).
Petprod, an electricity trader established in 2003, is controlled by businessman Jack Cutișteanu, with its biggest contract so far until year involving the supply of energy to the local operations of India’s ArcelorMittal. Cutișteanu became known in 2010, when he began a campaign to promote his company after it lost Mittal as a client.
Coincidentally, Petprod was also a participant in the 2008 auction in which CEN Craiova won the contract with Petrom. The result of the auction was quite heavily contested. The main complaint at the time was that an energy supplier could never compete with an energy producer because of the costs involved. Petprod did not specify where the energy needed to fulfil all these contracts would come from.
According to data supplied by Petprod, the contract will run between the beginning of November and the end of August 2011, when the 500 million-euro plant that Petrom is building in Brazi is set to start operating. Considering the prices of the last transactions on energy exchange OPCOM, the contract sealed by Petprod and Petrom could be worth over 35 million euros, with 140 MW of energy to be delivered.