After several months of careful consideration, the Government seems to have realised that the only way to solve the problem of Petromidia's historical debts is the solution suggested this spring by the owner of Romania's largest refinery, private oil group Rompetrol.
"This is the most likely solution. There is no other way out," sources within the Finance Ministry stated. The chairman of private oil group Rompetrol, Dinu Patriciu, suggested that the Romanian State should become a shareholder in Petromidia by converting the company's historical debts into equity. Should this solution be applied, the state could come to control up to 35% of the company's shares.
"For Rompetrol Rafinare (the group's refining division), this solution is very important because, this way, the company's balance will allow it to attract financing for refinery investments, which will also allow us to reach European standards by 2005. Moreover, this would also secure the regional expansion of Rompetrol Group," says Dinu Patriciu. According to the group's officials, Petromidia's historical debts have reached $325 million, similar to the debt level registered at the time it was taken over in 2001. Thus, current debts have been honoured. Patriciu maintains that the debts already existing upon takeover must be regarded as the state's debts toward itself, considering that the respective debts were inherited from the period the state owned the Petromidia refinery.
Petromidia was split into two companies early this year: Rompetrol Rafinare (the group's refining unit, comprising Petromidia and Vega Ploiesti refineries) and Rompetrol Petrochemicals, a company that was set up on January 1, 2003, including all the assets in the petrochemical domain.
Rompetrol acquired the main stake in Petromidia in 2001 for 50 million dollars, a sum due to be paid over a five-year period. adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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