OMV Petrom to demolish Arpechim refinery in Romania if no buyer in sight

Oil and gas company OMV Petrom, which recently reported record profit and turnover on 2012, will demolish the Arpechim refinery in Romania if it does not find a buyer for the unit, the company's CEO Mariana Gheorghe said. The refinery has been closed for the last three years, and the company will maintain the structure before it receives the authorization to demolish it, if no buyer comes forward. According to Petrom, which closed down Arpechim Pitesti in 2011, the refinery is too small, inefficient and lacks the transport connections afforded by proximity to the sea. Previously Petrom had agreed to sign off Arpechim to the state, as the refinery was important for state owned chemical producer Oltchim, currently insolvent but due to be privatized. The company's other refinery, Petrobrazi Ploiesti, had an utilization rate of 73 percent compared to 79 percent in 2011 due to the scheduled refinery shut-down and lower demand in Q1 2012. OMV Petrom plans to further modernize Petrobrazi, whose upgrade program is due to end in 2014. Romania's oil and gas company OMV Petrom posted a record profit of EUR 885.5 million last year, up 5 percent on the year before, while its sales went up by 16 percent, to some EUR 5.9 billion, according to the company. Its profit in 2012 was lower expressed in Romanian currency, but due to the exchange rate fluctuation, in EUR it was slightly higher at EUR 886 million. The turnover however was lower in euros, EUR 5.3 billion. “After a recent period of volatile crude prices and macroeconomic uncertainty, 2012 was a year of relative stability, with strong operational and financial performance for Petrom. This was the result of the preceding years of high capital investments in our core business and a focus on operational excellence,” said Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of OMV Petrom. The group's net profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was up compared to the third, reaching EUR 237 million, an increase from EUR 194 million in the third quarter. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: sxc.hu)