Romania has a surplus of capacities for crude oil processing with respect to the local needs, and decreasing export opportunities, considering that the developing countries are opening their own refineries, which are modern and have several employees. They satisfy the demand at a low price, said the Executive Director for Processing and Marketing of NIS Petrol, Ileana Baltatu.
NIS Petrol is the Romanian branch of the Serbian company with the same name controlled by Gazprom Neft, a branch of the Russian giant Gazprom. NIS owns a refinery in Pančevo. In the last two years, NIS has increased the production capacity of the refinery in Pančevo, following significant investments in modernization. The majority of refinery’s production is exported to the EU. In Romania, NIS has several gas stations, operating under the brand Gazprom, as well as oil exploration blocks in the west of the country.
In Romania, which belongs to the Pannonian Basin from the geological point of view, NIS has begun geological and exploration activities on the six blocks located in the highly-productive region in the west of Romania. NIS cooperates with three companies – the Canadian East-West Petroleum, the Irish Moesia Oil and Gas and the English Zeta Petroleum.
NIS entered the Romanian concession market after signing the agreement on cooperation with the companies who had won the tender announced by the Romanian Mineral Resources Agency (MRA) within the tenth round of auctions, held in 2010.
The block Crai Nou in Timis county has been rented by the company Moesia. During 2012, the company transferred 50 percent of rights to the local branch Moesia Exploration, whereas the remaining 50 percent were taken over by NIS Petrol.
NIS Petrol is the holder of exploration licenses for the blocks Periam, Biled and Baile Felix in western Romania. Last year, NIS asked for an extension of the exploration period for these blocks up to three years, because the land owners had refused to allow the performance of seismic survey, transmits Serbia-energy.eu