CAPITAL: Prague

MONETARY UNIT: Koruna

REFINING CAPACITY: 198,000 b/cd

OIL PRODUCTION: 8,300 b/cd

OIL RESERVES: 15 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 140 bcf

Soaring growth in the private Czech auto fleet drew foreign companies to marketing ventures.

In Prague alone, the auto fleet grew at the rate of 40,000 cars/year after 1990 vs. 6,000/year in prior years.

Russia`s Lukoil opened its first service stations in the republic. It supplied 70% of the crude processed in the nation.

The state-owned service station operator, Benzina, had to close about 50 stations because they failed to meet strict environmental laws that became effective Jan. 1, 1999. Meanwhile, the Czech government was trying to sell the financially troubled Benzina.

Austria`s OMV bought BP`s 14 service stations in the republic, giving it a total of 97 sites and about a 9% market share.

Slovakia`s Slovnaft planned to have 45 service stations in the Czech Republic by 2000, up from 31 stations in early 1998.

ZCP, the West Bohemian gas distributor, linked its gas trunk line at the German-Czech border with that of FNG, the Northern Bavarian distributor.

ZCP built a 2.2 mile extension on its side and FNG built a 1.1 mile extension on the German side so they could provide supplementary gas deliveries to each other.

Russia`s Gazprom signed a 15-year, $10 billion deal to supply 283-318 bcf/year to the Czech-owned Transit gas pipeline beginning January 1999.

Medusa Oil & Gas, a unit of Aberdeen-based Ramco Energy plc, and partner Moravske Naftove Doly AS (MND), the former Czech state oil company, were exploring in the Brezi-Mikulov license area along the Czech-Austrian border.

Their Krumvir 2 well in the Karlin license area tested 750 b/d of 30°-gravity low-sulfur oil through a 14/16-in. choke with flowing tubing pressure of 3,400 psi. Krumvir 2 was 30 km southeast of Brno and 100 km northeast of Vienna. Medusa held a 48% share and Moravske 52%.

The Czech government decided to sell its stakes in several companies, including 16 regional gas distributors, the energy pipeline operator CEPRO, petrochemical company Unipetrol, and refining company Paramo.

It also approved a 27% increase in household gas prices and a 24% increase in home electricity prices.

Processing activity

Ceska Rafinerska AS was building a $45.3 million, 17,500 b/d visbreaker at its Litvinov refinery. Completion was expected in late 1999.

The company also planned to build a 26,600 b/d fluid catalytic cracker by mid-2001.

Ceska Rafinerska, which was 51% owned by Czech Unipetrol AS and 49% by AgipPetroli International BV, Conoco Energy Co., and Shell Overseas Investments BV, had begun a 5-year, $500 million investment program to update and replace equipment. Ceska Rafinerska`s share of the Czech gasoline market fell to 63% in 1997 from 67% in 1996.

Meanwhile, Unipetrol AS signed agreements with Amoco Corp. and Union Carbide Corp. for a $273 million upgrade of its plastic production.

Unipetrol, a holding company that owns the nation`s two biggest petrochemical companies and controls the largest refinery, planned to increase the polypropylene and polyethylene output at its Chemopetrol AS subsidiary.

The polyethylene unit would be rated at 320,000 tons/year after the improvements and the polypropylene unit 250,000 tons/year.

Chemopetrol, the Czech Republic`s largest petrochemical company by sales, merged with Unipetrol in 1997, along with a smaller petrochemical company, Kaucuk AS. The company said its development plan would be the biggest investment in the Czech chemicals industry since the fall of communism in 1989.