Muddy waters at Oltchim

• The Govora electric plant can no longer supply electricity to Oltchim, starting with February 15th

Nearly 300 employees of Oltchim yesterday protested near the headquarters of the plant and on the petrochemical platform of Arpechim. They have asked for the payment of the overdue salaries and for a clear decision on the company.

Union leader Corneliu Cernev said: "The people aren't asking just for their overdue salaries. They are asking for working capital and they are also protesting because the divisions which were still working have also been stopped, due to the lack of raw materials".

Gheorghe Piperea, a partner at Rominsolv, who was appointed as receiver of Oltchim, as part of a consortium with BDO Business Restructuring, told us: "The divisions in question have been stopped temporarily. We are making great efforts to preserve some of the contracts with our suppliers, which would allow the functioning of at least a part of Oltchim. We are in talks with several providers of raw materials who no longer want to deliver to Oltchim anymore, as well as with CET Govora, which has announced that it can no longer supply energy to Oltchim starting with February 15th. The people need to be patient and a little calm. Oltchim has only been in insolvency for a few days".

He stressed that the Ministry of the Economy is making great efforts to get the permission to grant a state aid to Oltchim, an action which needs to be notified to the European Commission: "Like I said before, Oltchim urgently needs a bailout of 20 million Euros from the state. The authorities are also preparing the documents to provide state guarantees for a working capital of 25 million Euros. Thus, with the 45 million Euros production can resume".

The representative of Rominsolv said that solutions also exist for the payment of the overdue wages: "In the case of a company which has become insolvent, we can resort to state funds for paying the wages. The program covers a period of three months prior to entering insolvency and a period of three months after entering insolvency. We will put this solution into practice, but it requires time".

Since October 2012, the Ministry of the Economy has been constantly promising that it would draw up the necessary documentation for the granting of the government aid to the plant. When asked yesterday about the status of the notification, the representatives of the Competition Council told us: "We are cooperating with the Ministry of the Economy on the drafting of the documents which will be sent to the European Commission".

Sources from the plant also claim that it will take a long time before the documentation is completed. Our sources are saying that the workers were right to ask the authorities to decide whether they would help or liquidate Oltchim, as they were concerned that the insolvency would deprive them of the compensatory packages.

The representatives of the Ministry of the Economy yesterday told us that the notification for the state aid for Oltchim has already been sent to the Competition Council last week and that the final details are being perfected.