Petrom exports worth $572 million

The export-related revenues of SNP Petrom, Romania’s largest company are estimated to reach $572 million this year, up about 83% compared with 2001. Petrom’s exports are destined to the European Union market (Italy, Greece, Belgium, France, and Spain) or to the Central and South Eastern European area (Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria). Petrom estimates fuel sales abroad to amount to some 922,000 tonnes of gasoline and 1,232,000 tonnes of diesel in 2002, in addition to ethylene, polyethylene, acrylonitrile, urea and methanol deliveries. Petrom is one of the leading oil companies in Central and Eastern Europe, as it accounts for 63% of the total oil output of the region and for 35% of the total natural gas output. The company’s international operations include fuel distribution in Hungary and the Republic of Moldova and oil exploration and drilling in Kazakhstan, India and Iran. It plans to expand its fuel distribution operations to two more markets in the area, that is Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The Romanian State, owner of 93% in Petrom aims to have it privatised by December 2003, with the consultant for this transaction already appointed (a syndicate comprising Credit Suisse First Boston and ING Barings). ZF