Larger stocks, profit slowdown for Petrom

SNP Petrom’s oil product stocks went up by more than 4,000bn ROL ($120 million) in Q1, 2003, while the profits kept sliding. Analysts estimate the main cause for the increase in the company’s product stocks is the war in Iraq, which could have affected oil supplying and the surge in the oil price on the international market. Petrom ended Q1 with 481bn ROL ($14.4 million) in net profit, up 13% in nominal terms compared to the same time in 2002, when it had posted 426bn ROL net profit. Still, the profit increase was below the inflation in this period, which reached about 17%. The turnover was faster to progress than the profit was, amounting to 17,637bn ROL, up 24% from the same time last year. Both the turnover and the net profit were in line with the expectations highlighted in the S&R budget for 2003, that is 1,900bn ROL in full-year net profit and 75,000bn ROL in turnover. ZF