Austrian Gerald Kappes to become Petrom officer as of 1 January

Romania’s largest company, Petrom, will reorganize its business divisions as of 1 January 2008, at which time it expects Gerald Kappes, currently OMV Procurement Department Director, to join its team.

“Gerald Kappes’ employment contract with Petrom theoretically begins as of 1 January 2008, although this is not a workday,” according to a statement to Business Standard by oil company officials. Kappes will take over some of the responsibilities of Petrom’s Deputy General Manager, Werner Schinhan, also known as “Petrom’s restructuring strategist,” who left the company at the end of this year. The duties of Kappes will include natural gas activities, energy, and the Doljchim plant. According to information supplied by Petrom, Schinhan’s corporate responsabilities will be taken over by Mariana Gheorghe, Executive General Manager of Petrom, and by Reinhard Pichler, the company’s COO. Company officials also indicated that Gerald Kappes will run a future energy, gas and chemical product division, and will become one of Petrom’s officers, reporting directly to its CEO.

Werner Schinhan was one of the company’s two interim managers, appointed by the Austrians of OMV following their takeover of Petrom in December 2004. He was very familiar with the Romanian oil market and one of Petrom’s most important competitors, Rompetrol, as he was involved in a transaction by which OMV acquired 25 percent of Rompetrol shares. He was appointed interim manager soon after the oil company was privatized, giving up his positions as OMV Senior Vice President and Director of Development and Strategy, which he held since 2002.

Petrom top management changes began in mid-2007, all linked to Schinhan’s departure. It is possible that the company will have a new CEO as of February 2008, in the person of Gugu Siegfried, who will become head of a separate Exploration and Production (E&P) oil services division, to be established following the closing of the Petrom-Petromservice transaction. Siegfried will also become one of Petrom’s officers. Petrom took over this Petromservice division of oil services in 2007 for €328.5 million.