Most of the investors that backed out of Petrom's privatisation were actually looking to get a better picture of the oil market, without having any real interest in the privatisation whatsoever, a high-ranking official with the Economy Ministry at the end of last year said.

Whereas 15 expressions of interest had been initially submitted for Petrom, a series of withdrawals of heavyweight oil corporations, such as Russian-British TNK BP, ConocoPhilips (US), Eni (Italy), and Alon Inc (US), followed. All these companies submitted expressions of interest and had access to a series of pieces of information presented in the data room, but did not follow up with technical non-binding bids.

The info on Petrom acquired during the participation in the privatisation process is needed to get the big picture of the oil market in the Central and Eastern European region, which is still a fragmented market and divided among national companies. None of those that backed out cared to provide a reason for their decision, fuelling rumours that they had actually quit because of the failure to form alliances or consortiums for taking over Petrom.

Under the circumstances, the officials of the Economy Ministry have recently said the contenders in the race had conducted preliminary talks on the issue. At the same time, most of the investors hinted they wanted to control only certain parts of the company's portfolio.

The most motivated players for taking over Petrom thus far are the regional companies, because the stake here could be the regional consolidation itself. The suitors for establishing a regional leader at the moment are OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary) and PKN (Poland), all of which register a market capitalisation of $2.5 to $3bn and have enrolled in the race for Petrom. The analysts of Erste Bank, one of the most extensively