Lower profits for Romania’s OMV Petrom
Romania’s biggest oil company OMV Petrom SA has announced its first-quarter profit at RON 350 million ($90 million), 68 percent lower than a year earlier due to lower oil prices, and warned it may operate investement and production cuts through 2017. Petrom is cutting back investment at a time when the company is searching for new gas discoveries in the Black Sea along with Exxon Mobil Corp. „In response to the low crude prices, we cut our 2015 investments while further optimising our cost structure in order to protect our free cash-flow position”, chief executive Mariana Gheorghe told reporters on Monday.
A leading PSD executive resigns
The executive president of the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) in Romania is expected to resign at a meeting of the party’s Permanent Bureau on Monday. Liviu Dragnea previously left his position as Romanian Minister of Regional Development after the country’s high court ordered a suspended one-year prison term for his involvement in the so-called „Referendum” file. However, the ruling is not final.
A mayor before DNA
The mayor of the north-eastern Romanian city of Iassy has appeared before prosecutors with Romania’s Anticorruption National Directorate (DNA) on Monday. Gheorghe Nichita is expected to answer accusations of alleged abuse of office and unveiling classified information. Mr. Nichita has been currently under house arrest for harasing a city hall employee who choose to end their relationship. He denies any wrongdoing and stopped short from making any comment to reporters.
Radio Romania’s Gaudeamus Book Fair in Oradea
The second edition of Radio Romania’s Gaudeamus Book Fair closed its doors in the northwestern Romanian town of Oradea on Sunday. More than 15,000 people visited the fair, according to organisers.”Gaudeamus Book Fair is a cultural festival, a travelling book temple. This was its second edition and we hope that a third edition will follow”, Fair’s Honour President Lucian Silaghi, head of Bihor County’s Cultural Directorate, told reporters.
Alexandru Danga
