KazMunaiGaz intends to pay back 100 million dollars of the debt of 2.4 billion lei (around 600 million dollars) that "Rompetrol" has towards the Romanian state, the minister of Finance Sebastian Vlădescu said yesterday in a press conference.

The debt is coming due in September, with the rest of the debt to be converted into stock, according to the law, the minister said.

The Rompetrol Grop, owned by KazMunaiGaz of Kazakhstan, has the obligation of paying back the 2.4 billion lei of historic debt owed by the refinery of Petromidia, on account of the bonds issues by the company in 2003.

At the time, the government decided, by way of an Emergency Ordnance, to issue bonds against the company"s debt. At the time, the majority shareholder of the company was Dinu Patriciu, who sold his stake to the Kazakh group in 2007.

The board of Directors of "Rompetrol Rafinare" proposed that the shareholders increase the company"s share capital with up to 450 million lei, money intended to be used for the partial buyback of the bonds issued by the company in 2003 against its historic debt.

This year, the management of "Rompetrol Rafinare" issued several times signals that it did not have enough cash to fully pay back the bonds at maturity and that it would like to have the payments be rescheduled over several years.

VIVIANI MIRICĂ (Translated by Cosmin Ghidoveanu) KazMunaiGaz intends to pay back 100 million dollars of the debt of 2.4 billion lei (around 600 million dollars) that "Rompetrol" has towards the Romanian state, the minister of Finance Sebastian Vlădescu said yesterday in a press conference.

The debt is coming due in September, with the rest of the debt to be converted into stock, according to the law, the minister said.

The Rompetrol Grop, owned by KazMunaiGaz of Kazakhstan, has the obligation of paying back the 2.4 billion l