Romania wants to buy-back Arpechim refinery from OMV Petrom

Newsroom 09/09/2011 | 16:28

Ion Ariton, the minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment, met today with Marian Gheorghe, CEO of OMV Petrom and Gerhard Roiss, president of the Board of Directors at OMV Petrom. Ariton expressed the intention of Romania to buy back the Arpechim Pitesti refinery from OMV Petrom. Roiss stated his availability to start negotiations with the Romanian government right away.

The Arpechim refinery in Pitesti was closed this March by OMV Petrom, as its operation was no longer feasible. Petrom is still operating Petrobrazi refinery, which improved its utilization rate to 83 percent in Q2 2011 compared to 52 percent in the similar period of 2010. This was attributable to the closing of Arpechim.

Ion Ariton and OMV Petrom representatives also discussed about the cooperation progress on the Nabucco gas pipeline project.