Oil Terminal profit slumps

Nine-month profit of petroleum products reception, storage and shipment company Oil Terminal Constanta was five times lower than the level recorded in the same time last year.
Oil Terminal’s nine-month profit amounted to 12.9bn ROL ($0.4 million) compared with 66bn ROL ($2.3 million) in the first three quarters of 2001.
The profit decline was due to the 17% increase in the operating expenses in real terms, up to 470bn ROL.
Operating revenues, however, fell one percent in real terms, down to 499bn ROL ($15.2 million). Financial losses in their turn went up, totalling 7.4bn ROL for the first nine months, compared with 4.6bn ROL in the year-ago period.
Turnover in real terms maintained close to last year’s figures, though. Oil Terminal’s nine-month turnover amounted to 497bn ROL ($15.2 million), compared with 424.1bn ROL ($15 million).
Personnel expenses account for the largest share in the total operating expenses, as they amounted to 30bn ROL in September, more than half the total spending of the company in that month. The number of employees maintained at about the same level as in the previous year – approximately 1,300.
The company began inventorying its assets early this month, enlisting the services of a specialised audit firm. Such an operation could impact on the financial situation of the company, if the audit reveals significant gaps between the actual assets and the accounting records.
The Government last year designated Oil Terminal as a company of strategic interest and transferred a large part of its assets, consisting in petroleum storage and pipelines into its property, without paying any damages to the other shareholders.
The Industry and Resources Ministry, in its position as majority shareholder voted for the transfer of tanks, pipelines, petroleum products, pumping stations and of the other related installations and equipment into the state’s property, according to Emergency Ordinance 15/2001.