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Romania is set to appeal against the payment of an award to Petrochemical Holding GmbH at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
An ICSID tribunal found in favour of Petrochemical Holding GmbH in November 2024 and subsequently awarded them €85m plus interest. With the news that Romania will now appeal this award, interest will continue to accrue.
The case, an investor-state dispute, involved the unlawful sequestration of Petrochemical Holding’s assets in RAFO, formerly one of Romania’s largest petrochemical plants. In its ruling, ICSID found that Petrochemical Holding GmbH were ‘denied the right to fair and equitable treatment’ by the Romanian government.
Petrochemical Holding GmbH is owned by Austrian businessman Iakov Goldovskiy, and the company first purchased RAFO in 2007, acquiring 98% of its shares. At the time, RAFO was one of the largest oil refineries in Eastern Europe, with an annual total refining capacity of 3.5 million tonnes of oil. However, shortly after the purchase RAFO was forced to halt production after it was unable to renew its operating license after it was alleged that the company could not comply with environmental legislation requirements.
The ICSID ruling confirmed that Romania breached its obligations to protection foreign investment under the Energy Charter Treaty when it found in favour of Petrochemical Holding. Until now, Romania had remained tight-lipped on whether or not they planned to pay the award.
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes is an internationally respected forum for resolving investor-state disputes, and it obliges all participatory states to recognise its awards as binding under its charter. Romania’s right to appeal is also protected under ICSID’s charter.
As reported in the EU Reporter, Romania has 8 outstanding awards with ICSID, and it ranks third highest in the list of non-compliant states related to Energy Charter Treaty disputes. Generally speaking, there are high-levels of compliance with ICSID awards, with 90% of award payments made voluntarily. Romania’s decision to appeal signals that it is not willing to become part of this statistic.
