CAPITAL: Bucharest

MONETARY UNIT: LeU

REFINING CAPACITY: 521,715 b/d

OIL PRODUCTION: 135,000 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 1.4 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 13 tcf

Romania had three of its refineries on the auction block in 1998.

Romania sold a 51% interest in its largest refinery, Petromidia SA, to Akmaya Sanayi ve Ticaret AO of Turkey.

Akmaya paid $230 million for the 100,000 metric ton/day refinery and pledged to invest another $200 million over 5 years. The plant had $300 million in debt, which was being rescheduled.

It planned to buy Caspian Sea crude and refine it at Petromidia for the Turkish market.

Russia`s Lukoil agreed to take a 51% interest in the Petrotel refinery.

Lukoil paid $50 million for the controlling share and planned to spend $300 million on improvements.

Located at Ploiesti in the center of the Wallachian oil fields, the refinery had a capacity of 104,000 b/d.

The government retained an 18% interest, and workers had the other 31%.

And Romania planned to raise at least $15 million from the sale of a 60% stake in oil refinery RAFO Onesti SA. The purchaser would assume 1.3 trillion leu ($143 million) in debts by the former Romanian state oil company.

Romanian officials said the refinery, with capacity of 77,300 b/d, needed investments of $78 million over 10 years.

It had been operating at 52% of capacity.

In other activity, Enron Europe formed a 50-50 joint venture with Romanian state firm Petrom to market Romania`s 400 MMcfd of gas production. The new company, Petrom-Enron Gas SRL, was to be headquartered in Bucharest.

Upstream

Elf Aquitaine and Romanian state oil company Petrom agreed to conduct seismic surveys and drill two wildcats during 1999 on a 10,000 sq km concession in the Black Sea under a $15 million initial exploration program.

The Neptun exploration block, which covers around 10,000 sq km, was one of the 19 blocks Petrom received from the government in May 1997.

Petrom, with a 70% interest, was designated operator in the western part of the block, in waters of less than 100 m. Elf was to hold 70% and be operator in eastern part of the block, where waters are 100-1,600 m deep.

The Neptun concession carried taxation and customs duties in line with a 1995 petroleum law.

Tullow Oil Co. of Ireland was awarded a concession for onshore Blocks 3 and 8 in the eastern Carpathian region. Tullow had 65%, Oranje-Nassau of the Netherlands 20%, and Europa Oil & Gas pty of the U.K. 15%.

Pipelines, terminals

Romania proposed a $1.2 billion pipeline to move Caspian Sea crude from its Black Sea port of Constanta to Trieste, Italy. It said that route would provide a ready market for Caspian crudes in Central and Western Europe.

Black Sea LPG Romania SA, a U.S.-Romania joint venture, planned to complete a 1 million metric ton deepwater LPG import terminal at Constanta.

The $180 million project included a pipeline to Bucharest, ancillary facilities, satellite terminals, and LPG infrastructure throughout Romania. Start-up was scheduled for 2001.

Black Sea LPG partners were Romgaz RA, Renel RA, and Rompetrol SA from Romania; Energy Transportation Group Inc., New York; UGI Enterprises Inc., Valley Forge, Pa.; and North American World Trade Ltd., Avon, Conn.