Vice Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu argues that the Romanian state continues to pay for a destroyed infrastructure and a company that, in reality, has not existed for almost 20 years.
She states that the Romanian state pays nearly 28,000 euros annually for a pipeline that has not transported anything for almost two decades and has been stolen, piece by piece, in the meantime.
"There is a pipeline under Romania's ground. It hasn't transported anything for almost 20 years. Thieves have dismantled it piece by piece. And yet, every year, the Romanian state pays 27,960 euros to the landowners beneath it," writes Gheorghiu in a Facebook post published on Sunday.
According to her, the situation persists for an apparently banal bureaucratic reason: no one has signed the necessary documents to remove the infrastructure from the public domain inventory.
A company "shielded from the market and control"
At the center of the case is Petrotrans SA, a state-owned company that managed a network of approximately 1,800 kilometers of pipelines for the transportation of petroleum products.
"A company that was never listed on the stock exchange, always remaining entirely in the hands of the state. Shielded from the market, shielded from transparency, shielded from any external control," the Vice Prime Minister asserts.
Although the infrastructure had significant strategic value, subsequent developments transformed the company into an example of administrative and institutional failure.
Administrative decisions and legal chaos
The Petrotrans story began to unravel in 1996 when the Government decided to dissolve the entity and integrate it into Petrom. However, the company remained on the mass privatization list, and shares of a practically non-existent entity continued to be traded on the RASDAQ market.
Subsequently, between 2000 and 2004, thefts from the pipeline network escalated, becoming, according to Gheorghiu's description, an "organized industry," involving even members of law enforcement.
An extreme episode is mentioned for 2004 when thieves allegedly built a 250-meter installation under the Danube-Black Sea canal to supply barges, with estimated losses exceeding 80 million euros in a single year.
Key moment: 2005, when operations cease
The year 2005 is described as the decisive moment. Although a government ordinance designates Petrotrans as a licensed operator, the concession is not granted to them anymore.
Without this right, the company cannot operate. Furthermore, it is obliged to transfer part of its assets to another state-owned company without compensation.
"The activity of Petrotrans SA ceases. Not because of the market or management, but because of an administrative decision that never came," the Vice Prime Minister asserts.
Bankruptcy, convictions, and huge losses
In 2007, the company officially goes bankrupt. Meanwhile, the network is destroyed, and petroleum products can no longer be valorized.
In 2012, the supreme court convicts 56 individuals - including police officers and gendarmes - for complicity in pipeline thefts. However, the officially recognized damage is only 150,000 euros, a sum considered by Gheorghiu to be much lower than the actual losses.
A bankruptcy blocked by the state
The bankruptcy procedure spans nearly two decades. In 2019, the liquidator requests the closure of the file after recovering approximately 7.3 million lei from asset sales.
Paradoxically, the process is blocked by a state institution - the State Assets Administration Authority - which votes against it, even though it only had to recover 6,959 lei, which is 0.0021% of the total claims.
2026: the company only exists on paper
Currently, Petrotrans SA continues to exist legally, although it no longer carries out any activities. The state still pays rent for the lands under which the disappeared pipelines were located.
The presented data indicate major losses: creditors have received nothing, and unrecovered claims amount to 329 million lei.
"A company that died three times"
The Vice Prime Minister summarizes the case by stating that Petrotrans "died" three times: in 2005 when it lost its operations; in 2007 when it went bankrupt; and in 2019 when the liquidation was blocked.
Her message is critical of how the state manages such situations: "At every relevant moment in this story, the lack of decision-making has cost more than even the worst possible decision would have cost."