AN INVESTMENT OF 350 MILLION DOLLARS American investors want to get European grants for an oil terminal in Constanţa

A consortium of companies, with predominantly American capital, wants to lease a plot of land in the Port of Constanţa, for the construction of an oil terminal, according to a statement by Randy Tharp, managing director for Romania of "Epstein", made on Monday in a conference in New York.

"Our consortium (ed. note: made up mainly of four companies) will make a private investment, which will depend on a lease from the Government, for a plot of land in the port. Sure, we will be competing for that lease, but we've done our homework when it comes to the preliminary engineering of the project, due to the involvement of Master Chem Oil in the project", Randy Tharp told us.

According to him, the value of the project is approximately 350 million dollars.

"We will also seek financing, not all of our investment will come from capital", the Epstein representative told us, and he went on to say: "With the involvement of the American investors, we are hoping that over 51% of the investment will be done with American funding. And then we are hoping to address the OPEC and other organizations for funding".

Furthermore, the company has applied for 50 million Euros in financing throughout European grants, through its Romanian subsidiary.

Mr. Tharp is hoping that the Government will approve the lease of the plot of land in the Port of Constanţa soon, especially since the bid has been ready for a while now.

"Things have moved very slowly in the Government", he told us, and he added: "We hope there will be improvements. We have talked to a number of ministries - of Transports, of Energy - to stimulate the project. We are also seeking support with the American Embassy."

According to the Epstein representative, after securing the lease, the terminal will be partially useable after a year and a half, but its completion will take approximately 3 years.

Randy Tharp further said that the terminal already has clients, meaning that it will have a 60% load from the very beginning.