April 29 (SeeNews) - China's largest manufacturer and supplier of services and equipment for the oil and gas sector Kerui Petroleum plans to set up a plant in Romania through a partnership with a local company, Kerui's general manager for Central and Eastern Europe said.
"If we could manufacture products in Romania instead of bringing them all the way from China, the logistics, costs, delivery time, overall efficiency will improve," David Yang told SeeNews in a recent interview on the sidelines of the SEE Upstream 2016 conference in Bucharest.
Kerui is testing the waters for a possible partnership with OMV Petrom, the largest integrated oil and gas group in Southeastern Europe, the official also said. "We are in contact with OMV Petrom, talking for now, as it is the biggest player in the industry."
The volume of Kerui's investments in not dependent on the evolution of oil prices, the official also said. Since June 2014, oil prices have fallen more than 70% to a minimum of $39 (34 euro) per barrel. Currently, the price of crude oil is $48 per barrel.
"Honestly, there's no limit to how much we can invest in Romania. Be it a medium-size project or a big project, we will invest accordingly," Yang said.
Romania entered Kerui's radar four years ago, when the company started to look for business opportunities in Europe.
"Romania is one of the major players in the oil and gas industry in the region, this was our focus from the beginning, as we do see the big opportunities here," the official said.
In 2015, it set up a unit here, which it plans to expand.
"In the next two or three years, we will start enlarging the service portfolio and business overall here, also bringing our equipment here," Yang said. The company will test the market by selling first spare parts for rigs and later on, if oil prices move up and companies resume drilling operations, offering whole rigs and well heads, as well as oil field services.
For both production and services, Yang said the company would rather transfer workers from its plants in China to share experience and knowhow with Romanian workers.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, the Chinese group is also interested in investment opportunities in Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia and is working in Croatia's INA and in Serbia's NIS.
The company has over 8,000 employees working in four business departments and six large manufacture bases covering a total land area of 2 million sq. m in Dongying, close to Shengli, China's biggest oil field.
It was established in 2001 and specializes in the research, design and manufacture of nine series of high-end petroleum equipment products, including onshore and offshore drilling and workover rigs.
The group has branches, subsidiaries, technological service stations, and warehouses in 57 countries and has more than 500 oilfield service teams across the world.
($=0.8804 euro)