Petrom’s crisis period restructuring plan

Due to the crisis, Romania’s largest company, Petrom, part of the Austrian OMV oil and gas group, could lay off several hundred to a few thousand more employees in 2009, compared to the initial restructuring plan. However, the only certain information is that the company is planning to lay off more employees than the usual restructuring program, according to data centralized by Business Standard. According to this data, which comes from official sources, trade unions and company employees who wished to remain anonymous, Petrom could lay off an additional 600 to a few thousand employees. In compliance with the privatization contract signed with the Romanian state, the company can lay off some 10,000 employees in 2009, keeping only 22,630 employees by year-end. Petrom officials indicated that, for the time being, there is no target on the number of employees on the company’s payroll by this year’s end, although the company will focus on efficiency in 2009. Following its privatization, Romania’s largest company laid off over 6,000 employees annually, and more than 10,700 employees in 2006 alone. The company posted €3.64 billion in net sales and €629 million in net profit at the end of last year’s nine months. At the end of last year, the OMV group indicated that it will delay the modernization of the Petrobrazi refinery for one year, the latter part of Petrom’s portfolio, will speed up the sale of gas stations which register poor results, will cut investments in exploitation and production by one third, and will save €300 million from its operating expenses by 2010. The number of employees to be laid off will depend on the level of investments and upgrading to be carried out. “We will continue the restructuring programs begun in 2005 and, depending on the evolution of the economic crisis, we can consider possible additional restructuring,” said company officials.