Petrom Bucharest (SNP), the largest company in Romania, posted record net profit in the first quarter, 977 million RON (265 million euros), 156% higher in RON than in the same time of last year, given that oil price has reached new record highs on international markets this year, recently overshooting the 120 dollar/barrel mark.
Petrom's business went up by 35% during the same interval, to 3.72 billion RON (1.01 billion euros).
The increase was exclusively generated by the exploration and production segment, where Petrom posted EBIT worth 1.094 billion RON (297 million euros), 74% higher than in the January-March 2007 period, despite the 1% decline in total output, to 17.57 million barrels. The largest investments Petrom made in the first quarter were directed to this segment, as well.
The average price realised by Petrom from the sale of oil in the first quarter stood at 85.15 dollars/barrel, an increase of 76% on the first quarter of 2007 The increase in RON stood at 66% from 126 RON/barrel to almost 210 RON/barrel, given that the RON has gained 4% on the American currency over the past year.
During the same period, domestic production costs went up 11% in dollars and 6% in RON, from 15.4 dollars (39.8 RON) per barrel, to 17.08 dollars (42.09 RON) per barrel.
"The good results in the first quarter in 2008 are due to the favourable oil price on the international markets and to the progress of the restructuring and upgrade programmes. The re-launch programmes on the Exploration and Production segment have started to pay off, and the integration of the recently acquired oil services of Petromservice in the new E&P Services unit is going as scheduled and will help boost efficiency of the Exploration and Production activity," stated Mariana Gheorghe, general manager of Petrom.
Out of the over 2 billion RON (545 million-euro) investmen
