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Investigation launched into

Romanian refinery fire

ROMANIA ROMPETROL, co-owned by Kazakhstan’s the plant is offline. Rompetrol has already
national oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) been holding talks with union representatives
Petromidia is the largest and the Romanian economy ministry, has over a proposed salary increase for Petromidia
refinery in Romania. launched an investigation into an explosion that employees.
occurred at the Petromidia refinery in Romania The Petromidia refinery processed 4.8mn
in early July. tonnes (96,000 barrels per day) of crude oil last
The incident took place in the early hours of year, operating at just shy of its 100,000 bpd
July 2 at the refinery’s diesel hydrotreating plant, nameplate capacity. This was an impressive
and led to four injuries and one fatality, KMG’s feat considering the toll that the coronavirus
international arm and Rompetrol confirmed (COVID-19) pandemic took on European fuel
in statements. The ensuing fire was fully extin- demand last year.
guished later that day, although the refinery Rompetrol announced in late May that the
remains offline pending an assessment of the Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment Fund
incident’s impact. After assessing the damages, had begun building a $148mn gas-fired com-
Rompetrol will announce a schedule for resum- bined power and heat cogeneration plant at
ing operations. The company will continue the Petromidia site. The 80-MW station is due
delivering fuel to its filling stations in Romania online by the end of July 2023, fully covering the
and the Black Sea region during the downtime, refinery’s power needs and providing up to 180
it said. tonnes per hour of industrial steam to support
Petromidia is the largest refinery in Romania some of its processing activities. Turkey’s Calik
and one of the most modern facilities of its kind Enerji Sanayi ve Ticaret is working as the pro-
in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea area. ject’s engineering, procurement and construc-
Rompetrol said after the accident that it was in tion (EPC) contractor under an order placed in
talks with OMV Petrom, the operator of another August last year.
refinery in Romania, on the country’s fuel supply The Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment
situation. Fund is also supporting the development of a
In a July 6 post on social media, Rompetrol $35mn dewaxing plant at Petromidia, to raise
noted it was also in discussions with employees the refinery’s production of winter diesel fuels
and their union representatives on ways to beef and jet fuel, and a $8mn upgrade of its high-den-
up safety measures at the Petromidia facility, sity polyethylene plant so that it can produce
and well as maintain jobs for workers while polypropylene as well. ™

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