OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 February 2008 was announced, that KazMunayGas National Company hosted a seminar “Business-Day: Rompetrol – KazMunayGas” with over 120 participants from Kazakhstan, Romania, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Russia.

This event was the first large-scale joint meeting of Kazakhstan and Romanian specialists following the transfer of 75 percent of Romanian Rompetrol’s shares to Trade House “KazMunayGas”, a subsidiary of KazMunayGas National Company.

The seminar covered four sessions including oil refining and petrochemicals, marketing/retail business, production, and other operations (product quality, environmental safety).
Delivering a keynote speech, Uzakbai Karabalin, president of KazMunayGas said: “This meeting with a notably large presence of guests is the first mutual introduction of KazMunayGas and Rompetrol’s management. However, I would like today’s dialogue to give start to a number of practical steps that would allow us tomorrow to raise the effectiveness of our holding’s operations, which now includes Rompetrol.”

“I believe making our knowledge, technology, and experience common and complementary to each other will cause a synergetic effect,” – said Uzakbai Karabalin.

In the course of joint operations, KazMunayGas is planning to capitalize on Rompetrol’s expertise in the European oil products market to create a world-class vertically integrated company engaged in oil production and processing.

Speaking of KMG’s and Rompetrol’s joint activities, Dinu Patriciu, CEO of Rompetrol Group mentioned that today’s main objective is to establish communications links between the management of the two companies in order to position KMG in the European market more effectively.

“I see the holding establishing itself as a big company in the Mediterranean, which will develop from the east and from the north. Batumi and Constanta sea ports will become a bridge in the Black Sea,” – Dinu Patriciu said.

“Right after KazMunayGas purchased Batumi terminal, we started developing the terminal located near our refinery in Constanta,” – CEO of Rompetrol said.

“There is a lot of talk about the Nabucco project today, but I think it would be more realistic to talk about the South Stream project. At the same time, any company offering an alternative could become the hero of the day. Today, having such potential, we can talk about joint projects. These could be either tanker deliveries via Batumi and Constanta or construction of a gas pipeline across the Black Sea,” – Dinu Patriciu said.

In the course of the meeting, KMG and Rompetrol agreed to develop a plan of joint action, covering the operating cycle from oil production to producing oil products. Particularly, they discussed issues concerning development of petrochemical production (Rompetrol is a leading polyethylene and polypropylene producer in Romania and Eastern Europe), opportunities for service operations in oil production and refining, services for KMG’s companies, and the active involvement of qualified specialists.

The priority areas for developing joint operations, considered by KazMunayGas, include construction of jetties, expanding the retail network, and a launch of new hydrotreatment facilities. The latter is expected to allow Rompetrol achieve maximum production capacity and bring the quality of all of its products to EURO V by 2009.