Romania's largest fertilizers producer, Azomures, controlled by the Swiss from the Ameropa group, resumed production, suspended in December, on January 24.

The production should be ready to be delivered to farmers for spring sowing.

Fertilizer production will begin at 50% of the plant's capacity, according to Ion Sterian, director of the natural gas transport system operator Transgaz, confirmed by the Azomures officials. According to him, the production at Azomures is done mainly with imported gas.

"Yesterday [January 22], they started loading the first ammonia plant. It goes into production tomorrow, for now, at 50% capacity. That means a consumption of 1.4 mln cubic meters of natural gas per day. It is the only large [gas-consuming] production capacity that resumed operations. What we saw on the gas flow is that they bring a part from outside, and probably for the other part, they have contracts with OMV Petrom," said Sterian, quoted by Economedia.ro.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Azomures)