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Poland’s Orlen plans the Abu Dhabi-controlled fund other Funding for Growth Scheme (BGS) of the
National Bank on April 8. The yield on the
possible major transactions, according to
to invest €220mn in its Kurier: OMV’s purchase of a 25% stake in bonds, which carry a 1.9% coupon, was
1.926%, 67bp under midswaps.
petrochemical plant Borealis now owned by
Lithuanian refinery Mubadala or OMV’s purchase of Mubadala’s 2029, 10% in 2030 and 70% at maturity.
MOL will repay 10% in 2028, 10% in
stake in the Spanish oil group Cepsa.
Poland’s oil group PKN Orlen has announced In addition to these possible transactions, The company raised HUF36.6bn in
bullish plans to pump over 1 billion zlotys Seele discussed with the Abu Dhabi fund the a BGS issue in September 2020. A year
(around €220mn) into modernising its possible five-year extension of his general before that, it sold HUF28.4bn of bonds in
Lithuanian crude refinery, Orlen Lietuva manager contract, according to Kurier. the framework of the scheme.
CEO Michal Rudnicki has said. Austrian group OMV took over Romania’s The central bank launched the BGS in
The company will use state-of-the- former state oil company Petrom in 2004. the summer of 2019 to beef up Hungary’s
art technology to boost the efficiency of OMV Petrom currently has a market relatively small corporate bond market.
oil refining at the plant in Mazeikiai, in capitalisation of €5bn. The programme allocation stands at
northwestern Lithuania, according to the HUF1,150bn more than tripling the scale
CEO. of the local corporate bond market.
The investment is aimed at obtaining a Slovenia’s Petrol says S&P Earlier this year the Monetary Council
higher yield of light products from a barrel of of the National Bank decided to raise
crude oil, Rudnicki told local press. affirms its ‘BBB-‘ rating the central bank’s exposure to individual
“This installation will ensure the cost- issuers or issuer groups from HUF50bn to
effectiveness of the plant. Since such Slovenia’s energy company Petrol said on HUF 70bn. The limit on the maturity of
technology is almost non-existent in the April 12 that Standard & Poor’s rating agency bonds issued in the scheme will also rise
world, it was very difficult to calculate the affirmed the company’s ‘BBB-’ long-term and from 20 years to 30 years.
value of the investment,” the CEO said. the ‘A-3’ short-term credit rating with stable The MNB seeks to further support
But Dalius Gedvilas, president of the outlook. improving the liquidity of the corporate
Lithuanian Construction Association, The rating was affirmed on April 9. bond market and to ensure that the sector
says he is “sceptical” about the promises Petrol’s main business activity is trading continues to have access to sustainable,
of the CEO of Orlen Lietuva to entrust in oil derivatives, gas and other energy stable and long-term financing to finance
Lithuanian construction companies with the products. In energy trading Petrol generates their growth-enhancing investments.
modernisation of the refinery. more than 80% of all sales revenue, and
“Foreign countries have much more it also has a leading market share in the
solidarity in terms of national business Slovenian market. Wintershall ups exploration
interests and they defend their market, and In March, Petrol said that the group
the Poles act the same. Polish investments posted EBITDA of €166.6mn in 2020, which game with AI
in Mazeikiai and Butinge – they are all was 15% less than in 2019.
done through the involvement of Polish 44% of its EBITDA was achieved through German oil and gas company Wintershall
builders. Our builders just do minor work petroleum product sales, 23% through the Dea said on April 14 it would boost its
and on a small scale. So, we don’t have major sale of other energy products (natural gas, exploration processes with the roll-out of
expectations in this case,” Dalius Gedvilas electricity, LPG), 18% through merchandise an artificial intelligence search engine.
told a local wire service. sales, 12% through the sale of energy and “The Exploration Advisory Tool,
In his words, even in the absence of direct environmental systems, and 3% through developed in partnership with IBM, uses
orders from foreign investors, Lithuania, renewable electricity production. the latest cognitive search technology
nevertheless, could benefit from incoming Petrol Group’s net profit stood at €72.3mn to give Wintershall Dea’s explorationists
foreign builders. in 2020, down 31% from the same period of quick and easy access to relevant
the previous year. subsurface information,” Wintershall Dea
Earlier this year, Petrol Group adopted said.
OMV’s CEO Seele reportedly a long-term 2021–2025 strategy, according is a complex but critical task when
Understanding the earth‘s subsurface
to which EBITDA is expected to reach
talks of sale of OMV Petrom €336mn in 2025, with net profit amounting competing for new exploration areas, the
company says.
to €180mn.
The CEO of the Austrian company OMV, Investments are predicted to amount to “The artificial-intelligence-powered
Rainer Seele, reportedly discussed with €698mn in the period 2021–2025, which Exploration Advisory Tool improves
the representatives of the investment fund is seen as an important prerequisite for the and speeds-up knowledge discovery by
Mubadala from Abu Dhabi – OMV’s second- group’s long-term development. extracting information from unstructured
biggest shareholder – about the sale of OMV data like reports or presentations. Unlike
Petrom, according to the Austrian newspaper a simple keyword search, the tool ‘thinks’
Kurier. MOL issues €99mn in bonds like a geologist, understanding and
OMV representatives refused to comment extracting information related to concepts
on the information. under Hungarian central like ‘formation’ or ‘reservoir’. In doing so,
Austrian journalists cite sources from the it saves Wintershall Dea’s explorationists
oil industry, also speaking about a possible bank corporate bond significant time spent manually searching
deal involving OMV Petrom, but no more for data,” Wintershall Dea explains.
details are available. purchase scheme In the gas and oil industry, time is an
OMV owns a 51% stake in OMV Petrom, important value driver, the German firm
while the Romanian state holds just over Hungarian oil and gas company MOL says, adding that it can take up to 10 years
20%. issued HUF35.5bn (€99mn) in 10-year from the acquisition of new licenses to first
Rainer Seele reportedly discussed with securities in the framework of the Bond production.

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