Kazakh-Romanian Energy Fund skips investment projects on Petromidia petrochemical platform

Kazakh-Romanian Energy Fund (FIEKR), established in October 2018 by KMG International with a minority stake in the Romanian state (20%) to pursue energy projects in Romania, decided to abandon two planned investments in the petrochemical platform Petromidia – the only one still operating in Romania.

The two projects involve a catalytic dewaxing facility inside the Petromidia refinery and converting the HPDE (high-density polyethene) plant into PP (polypropylene).

The decisions were taken by FIEKR’s General Meeting of Shareholders in the latter part of November but were only recently published in the Official Gazette, Economica.net reported.

At the moment, there is only one petrochemical capacity in Romania, located on the Petromidia platform of Rompetrol (owned by KMG International). But the business is posting losses. According to data for the first nine months of last year, the petrochemical segment reported a net loss of USD 64.5 million, 2% higher than the first nine months of the previous year.

Polymer production fell 16% to 78,000 tonnes, and total division sales fell 14% to 91,000 tonnes.

(Photo source: Facebook/Rompetrol-KMG International)