Petrom, the largest company on the Romanian market, has completed a 90 million-euro investment in a gas processing plant, which looks like a smaller refinery. Works were, however, completed almost a year after the original deadline, with the company paying 20 million euros more than was provided for in the original budget. What is the explanation for this? At the end of 2006, Petrom announced it had signed a contract with Linde, a German engineering group, for the construction of a gas separation plant in Constanta. The value of the investment was then expected to amount to 70 million euros, and be completed in the second half of last year. This facility will be used to process gas that Petrom gets from the Black Sea, and that makes up a quarter of the company's entire gas production. However, the substantial economic growth in 2007-2008 altered Petrom's plans, generating cost increases. "The new facility we completed today is in fact built on an old Petrom structure. It is always after an auction, after you start the works, that you realise how serious things are and most of the times this leads to a rise in costs," explains Peter Zeilinger, manager of domestic assets within Petrom's exploration and production division. The new plant, located in Midia, has double the capacity of the old one, and can take over Petrom's entire offshore gas production.