Petrotrans becomes private railway carrier

The Office for State’s Interests and Industrial Privatisation (OPSPI) is planning to privatise Petrotrans and turn it into a private railway operator, after transferring the assets part of the State’s public property to Conpet Ploiesti first. “We’re thinking of transferring the assets part of the public property of the State from Petrotrans to Conpet and this way create a common carrier. Petrotrans would be left with the railway transport operations. These services might enable it to compete with those on the market,” Doru Laurian Badulescu, OPSPI head said last week. “This is an experiment we hope would turn out to be successful,” Badulescu added. Petrotrans’ privatisation will be completed by the end of the year, sources involved in this process say.
The officials of the Industry and Resources Ministry (MIR), the owner of Conpet and Petrotrans had announced plans to merge the companies to establish a common oil and oil products carrier ever since last year. MIR’s plans were verified by the reassignment of Petre Petrescu, Petrotrans general manager to Conpet Ploiesti as general manager last year, a position he is still filling today. ZF