April 6 (SeeNews) - A Romanian court has approved a request by geophysical services provider Prospectiuni to enter insolvency and has appointed Euro Insol as its special administrator, Euro Insol said on Wednesday.
"The insolvency procedure means a breath of oxygen, which will help the company overcome temporary financial difficulties caused by restricted oil and gas exploration activities due to weaker oil prices," Euro Insol owner Remus Borza said in a company statement.
Due to the collapse of oil prices in international markets, the company posted 26 million lei ($6.6 million/5.8 million euro) loss on a turnover of 192 million lei in 2015, down 38% from the previous year. In addition, Prospectiuni ended last year with 97 million lei in debts to banks, the fisc and employees.
Since June 2014, oil prices have fallen more than 70% to $39 per barrel.
The company, whose assets total some 200 million lei, is working on contracts worth over 40 million euro ($45.4 million), Euro Insol also said.
Between April 1 and 4, Propsectiuni representatives paid a visit to Kuwait where they met with officials of the ministry of oil and the Kuwait Oil Company, and presented an offer of integrated services in partnership with Romanian companies Vulcan SA and Uztel SA Ploiesti.
"This consortium of Romanian companies has very high chances to obtain contracts worth tens of millions of dollars contracts Kuwait in 2016," Borza also said.
Prospectiuni, founded in 1950, is owned by businessman Ovidiu Tender with a 55.7% stake and SIF Muntenia investment fund with 11.8%. The remainder is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB. The company was trading on BVB's alternative system AeRO but was suspended from trade on Wednesday due to the opening of the insolvency procedure.
The company provides geological services and geophysical data acquisition for the oil and gas industry, both in Romania and abroad, in countries such as Iraq, Libya, Iran, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Portugal, Albania, Morocco, Georgia and Senegal.
Currently, it has over 750 employees.
(1 euro = 4.4658 Romanian lei)