Romgaz - moving up in the world

摘要

Romania's largest gas producer, Romgaz, is moving up in the world. Late last year, it announced plans to build a new four-floor 6,400 sq m HQ in its home town of Medias, in Transilvania at a cost of ?8.6 million. Spending on new premises is a sign of affluence and its financial figures suggest as much. With net profit for 2004 forecast to rise to ?80 million (up from ?75 million in 2003 and more than double that of 2002) on a turnover of ?475 million (up from ?315 million in 2003), Societatea Nationala de Gaze Naturale (SNGN) Romgaz -to give the company its full name - is in fine fettle. The product of an unbundling carried out in 1999, in which it inherited the upstream functions of the old vertically integrated national gas company, SNGN Romgaz is clearly enjoying better times, Emil Varvara, its deputy general manager, explained to BEE. First and foremost has been the rise and rise in the price of gas. The artificially low prices which the state used to set put Romgaz in the position of providing involuntary subsidies to all and sundry. That has changed. At EU and IMF insistence, prices on the regulated part of the market have risen over the couple of years and will rise further as EU accession approaches. Romgaz is now enjoying nice margins.