Romanian oil company Petrom will invest over three billion euro by 2010 including one billion in 2007 alone in securing Romania’s crude and natural gas production, a company press release says. The announcement comes as the Supreme Defense Council is due to discuss the national energy policies in a session on Thursday.

According to Romanian media, the session is also due to tackle the privatization contract by which a majority stake was acquired by Austrian company OMV. OMV president Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer has met Romanian President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu to discuss this and the security of Romania’s energy supplies for the past two days.

“As the biggest company in Romania, Petrom is decided to get involved in the general concept and in the development of the national energy strategy. The security of energy supplies and the sustainable management of energy resources are a continuous concern both for the Romanian state and for all energy companies, Petrom implicitly”, the press release says.

Petrom is Romania’s biggest energy company with activities in expoitation, production, rafining and trade activities as well as petrochemical production. Petrom controls oil and gas reserves evaluated at one billion barrel of oil equivalent with an annual refining capacity of eight million tons and a distribution network of some 550 stations in Romania.

It also controls an international network of 82 gas stations in the Moldovan Republic and Hungary, which is due to expand with 178 supplementary premium stations in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia-Montenegro.

Its 2005 business figure amounted 2.97 billion euro.