Interview - Romania's Petrom Expects Oil Market to Remain Highly Volatile in Rest of 2009, Crude Prices to Recover

BUCHAREST (Romania), August 19 (SeeNews) - Romania's largest oil and gas group Petrom, majority-owned by Austria's OMV, expects the oil market to remain highly volatile and crude prices to recover by the year's end from the significant drop recorded in late 2008, the group's CEO Mariana Gheorghe told SeeNews in an interview. Petrom reported a 45% year-on-year drop to 923 million lei ($308 million/218 million euro) in its first-half net profit. First-half turnover fell by 28% on the year to 5.9 billion lei. The group expects its 2009 net profit to rise by 8.8% to 1.1 billion lei after falling 43% last year.