Petrom to wage bidding war in Serbia

The national oil company SNP Petrom will attend the tender that will be soon organised by Beo Petrol, the Serbian oil product distribution company, which is selling 180 gas stations.

“We will be fighting against OMV, LukOil, MOL and Helenic Petroleum,” said Ioan Popa, Petrom general manager.

Beo Petrol owns 203 gas stations, accounting for 18-20% of the annual sales of oil products in Serbia. The Serbian company is undergoing a privatisation plan, also developing its activities.

On the other hand, the development programme for a Petrom distribution network in Hungary has been put on hold, while the building project aimed at a gas station in Szeged has been frozen.

“We’ll just have to wait and see about our projects in Hungary, as we came against some behaviour problems,” Popa maintained. Petrom holds a commercial complex for oil product distribution in Bekescsaba, Hungary, where the company invested 2.65 million dollars.

Meanwhile, SNP Petrom is planning to build an oil product storage capacity in the Republic of Moldova, whose capacity will be at least 26,000 tonnes, in order to meet regulations in the field of auto fuel distribution.

According to Popa, as legislation was modified in Moldova, the market of auto fuel distribution will only comprise Petrom, LukOil and Mabanaft, which acquired Tirex Petrol.

Popa states that restrictions imposed by the Kishinev Government on the sale of auto fuels are linked to the interests of Russian company LukOil in the area.

Petrom estimates at least 3,000 billion ROL in profit this year, with the forecast target standing at 3,300 billion ROL, the same as last year, Ioan Popa stated.

Surprisingly, Petrom announced profit of 1,986 billion ROL for the first ten months of the year, although financial results had been much lower, with the company posting losses of 18 billion ROL at the end of September.

“We stored gas that we had not reported as revenues. We are now putting it up for sale and turning it into money,” says Popa, justifying the spectacular change of situation.

Petrom posted turnover of about 67,000 billion ROL for the first ten months of the year, as compared to the 47,000 billion ROL registered during the year-ago period, while investments exceeded 9,000 billion ROL.

However, financial forecasts for 2002 are not optimistic, as Petrom profit will be affected by the slumping prices of oil products worldwide, triggered by the decrease in the oil price.