Representatives of a Chinese petrochemical company will have a meeting this week with the receivers of Oltchim, interested in buying the plant and exploit crude in Romania, writes Mediafax.

One of the receivers, lawyer Gheorghe Piperea, says Oltchim will make a profit in this financial year, after in the first half of the year made an operating profit of 1 million euros, and that the unit may be sold probably at the beginning of next year.

“The company from China has an interest to exploit some unique oil reserves. After a conventional resource is exploited, an oil well, 65% of total oil reserves stay there untapped because it is too viscous to be extracted. And they have the technology that allows them to exploit this reserve, two-thirds of oil reserves that cannot be exploited by conventional technology”, said Piperea.

“Ethylene, from which PVC is produced, is a product of petroleum fractions. So is propylene, from which polyols are made, the merchandise that Oltchim exports best”, said the lawyer.

The Chinese company name has not yet been released. The state company in Râmnicu Valcea is insolvent since January 2013, and the reorganization plan provides for the sale of the plant for a minimum of 307 million euros. The state has repeatedly tried to privatize Oltchim, but without success.