Romanian state-owned gas producer wants to invest in fertilizer plant

Romanian state-owned gas producer Romgaz plans to invest in the chemical industry, especially in the fertilizer production, which has already been included in the company’s development strategy. “When we will have enough gas, we plan to have a talk either to take over an existing fertilizer plant – we have a discussion in this sense with one of our debtors -, or to start a greenfield project with a strategic partner,” said Liviu Nistoran, Chairman of Romgaz’s Board of Directors, at an energy conference, local Hotnews.ro reported. Romgaz could take over one of the fertilizer plants that are part of Interagro group, controlled by Romanian investor Ioan Niculae. Interagro is in insolvency and has debts of some EUR 61 million to the gas producer. The company could invest as much as EUR 1 billion in the chemical industry as it has zero debt and a growing turnover. In 2017, Romgaz had a turnover of RON 4.58 billion (about EUR 1 billion), up by a third compared to 2016, and a net profit of RON 1.8 billion (EUR 390 million), 81% higher than in 2016, as the gas market was liberalized. The company covers about half of Romania’s gas production at the moment. Romgaz also ponders building another gas power plant near Deva, with a capacity of 400 MW, in addition to the one it is already building at Iernut, which has a capacity of 430 MW. editor@romania-insider.com