Directa Plus contract with OMV Petrom extended and increased

Graphene nanoplatelets technology company Directa Plus said on Friday that its contract with OMV Petrom had been extended and increased.

The AIM-traded firm said the contract, initially awarded in July 2019, was for the provision of decontamination and oil recovery services using its proprietary ‘Grafysorber’ technology.

It said the initial value of the contract was €0.15m, of which €75,000 was delivered and invoiced in 2020, and that has now been increased to up to €0.41m, with the balance expected to be fulfilled by June.

The contract relates to oil recovery from existing high-volume emulsions stored in the OMV Petrom tank farms in Romania.

Directa Plus said the project was paused in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, but resumed in November, and this month saw the treatment capacity increased to 2,000 cubic meters of emulsion per month.

The extension had been agreed on the basis of the positive results to date of the Grafysorber technology.

“This extension to our contract is a further demonstration of the potential of Directa's technology to capture decontamination and recovery business from the oil and gas industry worldwide,” said founder and chief executive officer Giulio Cesareo.

“The OMV Petrom contract gives us an important reference project to help with the further roll-out of Setcar's services based on our patented Grafysorber graphene-based technology.”

At 1152 GMT, shares in Directa Plus were up 1.14% at 89p.