Petrom reports 247 mln euro profit in Q1 2006

Romanian oil company Petrom announced a net profit of 881 million RON (247 mln euro) in the first three months of 2006. Its business figure rose to 3.13 billion RON for the same period, up 50% compared to Q1 2005.

Increasing oil prices and a large sales volume contributed to the EBIT profit, which reached 1.053 million RON, a company press release says.

According to Petrom top executive Gheorghe Constantinescu, the results are in line with the current evolution of the company, which is investing and developing into a European company.

Petrom says its total production rose to 18.93 million bep, 4.2% under the level of Q1 2005. The crude and natural gas production at group level dropped 3.4% due to a lower domestic production of 19.32 million bep.

But during the period Petrom refined 12% more crude than in Q1 2005 thanks to higher crude imports (+70%) and the supplementary stocks.