Mayor of Arad, Gheorghe Falcă, announced an investment of 17 million euros made by OMV Petrom, which will build a new regional center for the distribution of petroleum products, and the municipality will have to expropriate land in order to modernize a road and make an access exit to the ring road until the beginning of center activity, according to News.ro and economica.net.

Falca said an agreement was reached with OMV Petrom to build the largest distribution center for oil products in the west.

“OMV has decided to make an investment of over 17 million in Arad, building at Gradiste the largest distribution center for western region. To support this investment, the municipality will provide a direct access to the ring road via Cometei street, ” the mayor said.

Falca said that the next meeting of the City Council is to vote on the decision of expropriation of land, as with the approval of the budget to be able to finance the design and execution of this road.

OMV holds a 51.01% stake in OMV Petrom, the Romanian state through the Ministry of Energy holds 20.64%, Fondul Proprietatea holds 12.57% and 15.79% is free float on Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

OMV Petrom has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons annually and operates at Brazi a power plant of 860 MW and a 45 MW wind park.

The company recorded last year a profit of 1.04 billion lei, compared to a loss of 690 million lei in 2015.