Romgaz to buy Azomureș
Azomureș chemical fertiliser plant has a concrete takeover offer from Romgaz.
Daniela Budu, 22.04.2026, 13:50
The biggest producer and main supplier of natural gas in Romania, Romgaz, whose main shareholder is the Romanian state, has made a concrete offer to Azomureş shareholders to take over the largest chemical fertiliser plant, located in central Romania. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Cristian Buşoi, State Secretary at the Ministry of Energy. He explained that the takeover of Azomureş by Romgaz is meant to provide a certain level of security in terms of the supply of chemical fertilisers, but this will not automatically translate into very low prices. “This is a business and it’s a free market. The expectation would be that prices would be more competitive and less burdensome for farmers, but they cannot be very different from the prices on the international market,” Cristian Buşoi said, adding that while it will not necessarily lead to lower prices for these products, the takeover of Azomureş by Romgaz would still have a significant impact. Cristian Buşoi:
“There are advanced talks and a concrete offer was even made offer to the shareholders of Azomureş. I hope things will have a happy resolution; while gas and fertiliser prices are aligned with European and international prices, at least in terms of security of supply things could be safer in this area if the Romanian state, through a company in which it holds majority control, is able to develop a strategic company such as Azomureş”.
Over the past year, the Azomureş plant, owned by the Swiss group Ameropa, has held numerous talks with Romgaz regarding a possible acquisition of the industrial platform in Târgu Mureş. The company’s activity is currently suspended. Employees’ employment contracts are suspended and a collective redundancy procedure is underway. According to the participants in the specialist conference in Bucharest, the plant, which produces chemical fertilisers by processing natural gas, could supply almost half of Romania’s fertiliser demand.
Azomureș is the country’s largest producer of chemical fertilisers and also the largest consumer of gas, using about 10% of national consumption when operating at full capacity. The plant was closed at the end of 2021 due to the high price of gas, which is a raw material in the fertiliser production process. It reopened in the summer of 2023, but has been operational sporadically ever since. Due to the frequent interruptions at Azomureș, Romanian farmers have had to import fertilisers from outside the European Union, often at higher costs. Recent tensions in the Middle East, which have led to significant increases in international gas prices, have also influenced the plant’s production costs. Last month, Romanian Parliament decided to begin a legislative procedure to declare fertiliser production “national critical infrastructure”, in order to protect the sector and ensure the country’s food security. The draft legislation was adopted by the Senate and is to be debated and voted on by the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making body in this case.
