End of an era: SNP Petrom's Ion Popa steps down

Industry and Resources minister Dan Ioan Popescu yesterday approved the resignation of Ion Popa, who stepped down from his position as general manager of SNP (National Oil Company) Petrom. Popa was replaced by Gheorghe Constantinescu, former general manager of the Petrobrazi refinery.
“I have approved the resignation of Ion Popa from his position as general manager of Petrom, which he requested for medical reasons. I repeat – this is not a dismissal, but a resignation. He (Popa, i.e.) had been ill for several months and I am surprised he could hang on for so long,” Dan Ioan Popescu stated.
“When I came to the company in 1992, I knew I was going to leave some time in the future and that is precisely why I did not buy a house in Bucharest,” Popa stated. “I am not a rich man, now,” he said. Although he is from Ploiesti, Popa will keep working in Bucharest, as an advisor to Premier Adrian Nastase.
Surprisingly, the former Petrom manager says he did not want to lead the company during the privatisation process. “Privatisation is coming and I do not wish to be involved. I never wanted to. Not because I do not agree with it. This is a good idea and there is no other option – all the other operators are privately-held,” Popa says. “I do not want to be among those who decide on the privatisation. My job was to turn it into a powerful company,” he concluded.
“At this moment, Popa has only been replaced as general manager of Petrom,” Popescu said, adding that Popa’s possible departure from his other positions would be analysed in the next few days. Popa is also chairman of the Board and a member of Petrom’s Privatisation Commission, according to Emergency Ordinance 172/2002.
Ion Popa last year was appointed chairman of the Board of Petrom, Romania’s largest company, after Iulian Gradisteanu stepped down. Gradisteanu was also director of the Oil, Gases and Energy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Resources.
Few managers of state-owned companies have matched Popa’s performance, as he has practically represented Romanian oil for the past decade. Popa took over the reins of the former autonomous regie Petrom when it was established, in 1991, after having worked for Petromar, a company operating the offshore drilling platforms, taught at the Ploiesti oil institute and worked for an Italian-based company. The regie managed the oil deposits in Romania and stopped the decline of the extracted amounts of oil, maintaining the annual domestic output at 6.5 million tonnes.
SNP Petrom was set up in September 1997, following the merger of the Arpechim and Petrobrazi refineries, Competrol Bucharest, the 40 county PECO units, the Transpeco operator and some remains of the former Romanian Oil Company – Rafirom Bucharest, PECO Bucharest.
A rather discreet personality, Popa was able to adjust to all the political regimes and ministers he worked with. He outlasted many ministers who are now almost forgotten, such as Dumitru Popescu and Alexandru Stanescu from the Vacaroiu Cabinet. Calin Popescu Tariceanu is the Industry minister who established the current SNP and put Popa in the spotlight, as the company was soon internationally acknowledged.
The past few years meant a time of expansion, which was however influenced by the Romanian business environment, as the company led by Popa did not match the “aggressiveness” of Hungarian company MOL, for instance. Still, Petrom entered the markets in Hungary, the Republic of Moldova, the former Yugoslavia, Kazakhstan, India and the Persian Gulf.