Oil company Rompetrol, fully owned by the KazMunaiGaz, is set to invest around USD 200 million in boosting the Romanian retail network, as part of a larger effort to accommodate rising output at its Petromedia refinery, said senior vice president Azamat Zhangulov in an interview for Bloomberg newswire.
Rompetrol plans to add 150 new stations in Romania and another 200 stations in Bulgaria, Georgia and Moldova. The company wants to build at least 100 stations in Ukraine and to enter the Turkish market by acquiring some stations and developing its own.
“The plan is for a term of three to five years, but we want to do them as fast as we can and we feel it is the right moment to do it,” said Zhangulov.
Rompetrol has invested around EUR 1.3 billion in the past then years to increase the capacity of the Petromidia refinery and should invest another USD 100 million this year to make it profitable, according to Zhangulov.
He added that Rompetrol shareholders are pondering a USD 100 million investment into a 75 MW gas-fired power plant which will supply the Petromidia refinery.
The comapny estimates gross sales of USD 12.4 billion this year and an EBITDA of USD 195 million.
Rompetrol shares gained 7.27 percent on Wednesday afternoon trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Ovidiu Posirca