„In total, by 2030, we are committed to allocate €11 billion,” OMV Petrom CEO Christina Verchere announced about the investment in the Petrobrazi refinery.
With this investment, the refinery established in 1934 will become the first large sustainable fuel producer in South-East Europe, says OMV Petrom.
OMV Petrom, Southeast Europe’s largest integrated energy producer, will invest around €750 million in Petrobrazi in a first phase to turn the refinery into the region’s first major producer of sustainable fuels, the Austrian company, in which Romanians also hold a 43% stake, announced Tuesday.
According to a report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, „the company has taken the final investment decision to build a SAF/HVO plant and to build two green hydrogen production plants to be used in the biofuel production process.”
„Today we have taken a decisive step towards decarbonising transport in Romania. In total, by 2030, we are committed to allocate €11 billion to transform the company for a low-carbon future in Romania and the region,” said Christina Verchere, CEO OMV Petrom.
„Together with electro-mobility, biofuels are the answer to low-carbon transport and we expect a gradual increase in demand for these products. Thanks to the investments we announced today, we will be able to replace imports with biofuels produced here in Romania. For our customers, this means product certainty and lower carbon emissions. We want to continue to be the first choice for our customers in the future and offer them the products they need,” says Radu Căprău, member of the OMV Petrom Management Board, responsible for Refining and Marketing.
The investment for this unit amounts to €560 million. The plant will have a production capacity of 250 kt/year of SAF and HVO, as well as bio-naphtha and bio-LPG, products used in the chemical industry.
In order to secure access to a reliable source of raw materials to produce biofuels, OMV Petrom has acquired a 50% stake in „Respiră Verde”, a leader in the collection of used cooking oil in Romania. „Respiră Verde” collects up to 10 kt of used edible oil per year from economic operators in areas such as hospitality (hotels, restaurants) and retail.
OMV Petrom is the largest integrated energy producer in South-East Europe, with an annual group-wide production of crude oil and gas of around 41 million boe in 2023. The group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tonnes per year and operates an 860 MW high-efficiency gas-fired power plant.
In the retail petroleum products distribution market, the Group is present in Romania and neighbouring countries through approximately 780 petrol stations under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
OMV Petrom is a company in which, at the end of 2023, Romanian shareholders hold more than 43% of the shares (of which the Romanian state, through the Ministry of Energy, holds 20.7% and 22.5% are held by Romanian pension funds, plus almost 500,000 individual investors and other Romanian entities).
OMV Aktiengesellschaft, one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies, holds 51.2% of OMV Petrom shares, with the remaining 5.6% held by other foreign investors. Of the total OMV Petrom shares, 28.1% are freely traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
OMV Petrom is one of the biggest contributors to the state budget, with around €42 billion in taxes and dividends paid between 2005 and 2023. During the same period, the company invested about €18 billion.
