Romania’s Petrom To Deliver In Jan Up To 75,000 Tons Of Fuel Oil To Pwr Plants

Petrom is in talks with seven power producers, including ElectroCentrale Bucuresti, ElectroCentrale Constanta, CET Galati, Termoelectrica and Termoficare Pitesti.

The fuel supply contracts might be signed until the end of the week, Petrom said.

According to Petrom’s CEO Mariana Gheorghe, the price of fuel oil dropped in the second half of last year and has incraesed since the beginning of 2009.

Petrom’s 2007 fuel oil production was of 737,000 tons.

In 2008, Romania’s fuel oil demand was estimated at around 480,000 tons, and Petrom held a 50% market share.

Electrocentrale Bucuresti, or ELCEN, might close a deal with Petrom in the next days, to buy 150,000 to 300,000 tons of fuel oil for the production of heat and electricity, Irina Duica, ELCEN commercial manager, told MEDIAFAX on Thursday.

Romanian economy minister Adriean Videanu said Wednesday the country has a state reserve of 202,000 tons of fuel oil.

The Economy Ministry decided that thermal power plants should replace gas with fuel oil, so that electricity and heating production would not be affected by the gas crisis triggered by the cut of Russian gas supplies to Romania.

All Russian gas exports to Romania were halted Wednesday morning.