OMV Petrom, Romania’s largest crude oil and fuel producer, has partnered with Romania’s Bitum Truck SRL, controlled and managed by Florentina Kovrig. The company owns a specialized plant in Cresesti (Ilfov County) to produce a line of high-quality polymerized bitumen, a local version of this building material developed and patented by OMV’s Austrian parent company.
In addition, OMV Petrom announced a cooperation with Galati-based Unicom, a company owned by the family of Constantin Iavorschi, former Minister of Energy of the Republic of Moldova in 1990-1992, which owns the oil products terminal of the same name in the port of Danube. The aim of the cooperation is to increase bitumen storage capacity and reduce delivery times to less than 24 hours.
The Romanian unit of Azerbaijani state oil giant Socar also planned to start bitumen deliveries to Romania in the spring via a terminal in Galati. “We aim to double the volume of bitumen supplied by OMV Petrom to the Romanian market by increasing storage capacity and introducing a premium product needed to ensure the sustainability of high-traffic roads. To this end, we have entered into partnership agreements with two Romanian companies,” said Radu Capreu, OMV Petrom Board Member responsible for Refining and Marketing.
Last year, OMV Petrom imported more than 88 million Romanian lei (336 million Moldovan lei) worth of bitumen from the Hungarian subsidiary of its parent company OMV Hungária Ásványolaj, and sold a total of 206,000 tons of fuel oil and bitumen.
According to statistics, Romania covers about 80% of its bitumen needs through imports.
