ROMGAZ remains under the government

Officials from the government announced at the end of last week that, on the basis of the memorandum prepared by the representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the privatization of SNGN (National Gas Society) ROMGAZ SA Medias will not be performed towards a strategic investor since this would disadvantage the Romanian state.

As a matter of fact, Codrut Seres, minister of economy, expressed this point of view last year already, when natural monopoly state company privatizations were intensely contested, especially the sale of PETROM to the Austrians from OMV.

By this resolution, the government overturns the calculations of the investors interested in participating in the competition for purchasing the controlling stocks held by the government in ROMGAZ. Be it remembered that, according to the schedule set by the MEC, the process for the submission of the letters of intent for purchasing ROMGAZ was to start at the beginning of this year, since last summer the consultancy was selected for the mediation of the ROMGAZ privatization.

Companies, among which we find Gaz de France, the company which holds 51% of the Distrigaz Sud stocks, E.ON Ruhrgas, the German holding company which owns Distrigaz Nord, Enel, the Italian holding company which already holds part of the electric energy distribution companies in Oltenia and Moldova, respectively Wintershall, the German company involved in gas exploitation along with ROMGAZ and among whose stockholders we find the Russian colossus, GAZPROM, which expressed their interest last year, will have to wait until the government issues a new privatization strategy.

Likewise, the officials from the Government and the MEC made no comments on their intention to list 5-10% of the ROMGAZ stocks at the Stock Exchange, in order to know the real market value of the gas producer’s stocks. Nevertheless, 15% of the ROMGAZ stocks might be listed on the Stock Exchange by the mid of this year, by means of the Proprietatea Fund, destined to the indemnification of the former owners of buildings and lands abusively confiscated by the communists.

Until the strategy for ROMGAZ is made public, the company remains in state property, remaining that this year the investment program of 28 million euros is finalized, which is destined to doubling the storage capacity from 3 to 6 billion cbm, respectively until 80.000 sq m are bored, which means the execution of 45 new wells, project estimated to reach over 200 billion ROL lei.

n Ligia VORO