Romanian fertilizers producer Azomures, the largest single natural gas consumer in the country, is taking steps to resume operations at the beginning of May, after an outage of over four months prompted by the high gas prices last winter.

The plant will operate at reduced capacity, though, because the price of natural gas is still high, Economica.net reported.

In fact, the price of gas has increased since Azomures decided to stop operations last December, from EUR 90-120 per MWh to almost EUR 345 per MWh in early March.

But Azomures expects support from the Government after the European Commission established a legal framework under which the Member States can support companies essential to agriculture. Poland (EUR 836 mln) and Germany (EUR 20 bln) have already provided substantial aid packages, with special provisions for fertilizer producers.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Azomures)