Calburean looks to foreign markets to offset local decline in demand

Gheorghe Calburean, owner of Dafora Medias (DAFR), leader of the Romanian drilling market, says the reduction in the volume of works in the sector has cut the number of players to just a few and does not anticipate a market rebound yet. He says he is trying to compensate for the decline in domestic demand by expansion on foreign markets.

Dafora's main competitors are Foraj Sonde Craiova (FOSB), held by the Cristescu brothers, and Foraj Sonde Mures (FOSP), controlled by businessman Vasile Aron.

Dafora has recently managed to attract the first drilling work with German equipment on which it spent 16 million euros in 2007, with the works carried out at a drill held by Petrom in the Bacau county area.

Dafora invested around 35-40 million euros in drilling equipment during the times of economic boom in 2006-2008, with the main source of funding being bank loans, so the company is rather indebted. At the end of March 2010, Dafora had 290 million RON (69 million euros) in overall debt and assets worth 463 million RON (110 million euros).