Grup Servicii Petroliere (Oil Services Group - GSP) registered 72% higher turnover in the first half of the year, up to 40.4m euros, compared with the similar period of last year, after having acquired, in late 2005, six marine platforms from Petrom.
Grup Servicii Petroliere, a business controlled by Gabriel Comanescu, bought the Petrom platforms with a loan worth $115m (92m euros) contracted from BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank).
Gabriel Comanescu, 39, is one of the strongest players on the Romanian market of oil equipment, also acting as chairman of the board of Ploiesti-based Upetrom 1 Mai firm.
Grup Servicii Petroliere reported H1 net income worth 1.17m euros (4.2m RON), up 11% compared with the corresponding period of last year.
"The business we are operating is tightly connected to the evolution of international quotations of oil products. Rising quotations pushed our business higher," stated Gabriel Comanescu, general manager of Upetrom Grup Management, the company owning 90% in Grup Servicii Petroliere.
"At the same time, the value of our contracts has also grown," Comanescu specified, without providing any further details.
"For this year, we expect turnover to go beyond $100m (about 80m euros)," specified Comanescu. Gabriel Comanescu owns 85.95% in Upetrom Group Management stock.
Grup Servicii Petroliere, set up in 2004, currently operates six marine drilling platforms, three in the Persian Gulf and three in the Black Sea, namely Atlas, Fortuna, Prometeu, Saturn, Orizont and Jupiter.
After its takeover by Austria's OMV oil group, Petrom started spinning off some assets and services to third parts, focusing the expansion strategy on its core business, namely oil and gas - from production and refining to trade and distribution. Consequently, Petrom decided to sell its marine platforms to Grup Servicii Petroliere. @
