Through the “Commercial House KazMunaiGaz", the KazMunaiGaz group bought 75% of the Romanian biggest oil company, Rompetrol Group NV. The deal will permit the Kazakhstan company to access the European market of oil products, the economic weekly Ekspet comments.

The paper summarizes the possible routes the Kazakh oil can use towards Rompetrol refineries. The same publication analyzes the transaction from a financial point of view.

Rompetrol, an expensive investment

KazMunaiGaz struggles for a long time to get foreign assets for oil processing. But all attempts failed which only ambitioned the company owners, comments the daily Ekspert.

The publication argues that all the assets that were of interest to the Kazakhs were less expensive than the Romanian group. For example, Unipetrol was finally sold for 480 million USD and the Lithuanian group Mazeikiu Nafta was bought by PKN Orlen with 1.5 billion USD.

Anyway, Russian annalists applauded the Kazakh deal. Russian consultant, Tatiana Kapustina says that many Russian oil company wanted to purchase the shares to reduce their fiscal burden.

Most probable routes towards Rompetrol refineries

In what concerns the routes of the oil for Rompetrol refineries, the director of the foreign affairs bureau of the Kazakh company, Galim Tumabaev says that generally, the Romanian group will function according to the economic opportunities and will get the quantity of the oil that most suits it.

The company’s representative says that there is no need for the oil to come directly from Kazakhstan.

The most expected route for the oil is KTK - Black Sea - Constanta - Ploiesti.

Even if under construction, the oil pipeline Constanta - Pancevo - Trieste will allow KazMunaiGaz to exit to the Mediterranean Sea and transport the oil on the international markets, avoiding the Russian infrastructure in Europe.

Another oil source could be Russia, considering that Transneft has enough capacity to deliver oil in any part of Europe.