Rise in oil price changes Oil Terminal's plans

Harbour operator Oil Terminal Constanta has revised its full-year financial results forecasts upwards. The adjusted S&R budget shows the company expects to make 22.8bn ROL net profit for the FY2004, almost 20% higher than initially anticipated. At the same time, this year’s turnover should reach 979bn ROL, 14% higher than first budgeted.

The new chief executive at Oil Terminal, Gabriel Daraban, who was appointed to this position at the end of last week, says that the budgetary adjustment is due to the increase in amount of products transiting the company’s facilities. “This year has been a good year for the oil industry. Both imports of oil and exports of gas and diesel oil have increased, with SNP Petrom as the main exporter.” Oil Terminal’s main clients are Rompetrol Rafinare, Petrom’s Arpechim branch and Carom Onesti, which together account for at least 60% of the company’s turnover.

Oil Terminal had a good first half year, ending with a 43bn ROL net profit, 85% higher than for the first half of 2003. The profit made by the company is three times higher than estimated. The turnover in the first half stood at 517.1bn ROL, up by nearly 28% as compared with the same period in 2003.

Sources at the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Oil Terminal’s main shareholder, had stated the good first half year results were due to the company concluding more contracts than anticipated. The company management says the number of contracts did not increase significantly, as the increase was more quantitative.

“The Romanian market fluctuates on a yearly basis, we cannot set a schedule at the end of one year for the next. The schedule set in 2003, based on the energy programme, required us to provide services related to the approximate 10 million tonnes of oil products this year; we now believe we will exceed this level,” Daraban said. Alongside this, company representatives feel that given that there are five private companies in the Romanian oil industry, forecasts of results for a specific year are hard to make unless the market coagulates.

The fact that Oil Terminal’s main client in the finished product segment (gas and diesel oil) is Petrom through its Arpechim branch, which will be outsourced and changed to a limited company, as endorsed by the latest General Meeting of Petrom shareholders, could affect the harbour operator’s future revenues.

catalin.ciocan@zf.ro