Romania: Petrom To Reduce Refining Capacity
|
|
|
|
Friday, 18 December 2009 |
|
Petrom has announced that it will no longer increase the refining
capacity of its Petrobrazi unit to 6 million metric tons annually, but
will reduce the capacity to 4.2 million tons annually.
Petrom, which is majority owned by Austria's OMV AG (OMV.VI), also
announced it would quit petrochemical products segment until the end of
2010. "The primary role of our refining business is to process
domestic crude production. Within the new market configuration, the
scope of the original investment plan has been changed; the capacity of
Petrobrazi refinery will be adjusted to 4.2 million tons per annum,
making it a much more suitable size for processing domestic crude
production of Petrom," the company said in a press statement.
Petrom planned to raise Petrobrazi's refining unit capacity from 4.5 million tons to 6 million tons annually.
The company will invest around €750 million between 2010 and 2014 in
modernizing and ensuring the maintenance of its Petrobrazi facility.
The revision of the original investment plan will lead to an impairment
of around EUR60 million relating to costs already incurred which will
be booked in the fourth quarter of 2009. "Petrom's decision as to
the future structure of its refining operations must take into
consideration the very depressed margin environment which currently
prevails together with a challenging medium-term outlook given the
overcapacity in the industry not only in Romania but in all of Europe,"
the release reads.
The decisions were made at Petrom's Supervisory Board meeting earlier
this week in order to adapt Petrom's value chain to the challenging
environment and to tailor it to fit significantly altered
supply-and-demand fundamentals. Furthermore, the company said the
negotiations for the sale of the petrochemical unit at the Arpechim
refinery to its principal customer Oltchim will continue.
PetrolWorld 161209 Mediafax
|
