Page 15 - EurOil Week 29 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

KMG refinery in Romania may

remain closed half a year

ROMANIA ROMANIA’S biggest refinery Petromidia, oper- of the machinery and equipment affected by the
ated by Kazakh state-owned group KazMunay- incident, and on the procurement of the equip-
According to experts, Gas (KMG), will remain closed for a period ment in the shortest possible time, in order to
the outage period is estimated at between three and six months, after replace the affected ones,” the company said.
estimated at between an explosion on July 2 killed three people and The explosion at the Petromidia refinery took
three and six months. destroyed an entire production unit. place after the unit underwent a general overhaul
Petromidia is one of the biggest refineries in between March 13 and April 30, 2020.
the region delivering fuels to Romania, Moldova, After the overhaul, all the installations were
Bulgaria, and Georgia. The refinery is controlled verified by state inspection body CNCIR and the
by the KMG with 48.1%, but with the Romanian reopening was approved by another state body
state owning a 44.7% share. ISCIR. Neither of the two accepts final respon-
According to experts consulted by Ziarul sibility for determining whether the works were
Financiar daily, the outage period is estimated at in line with the regulations.
between three and six months. Furthermore, Ziarul Financiar revealed polit-
The company announced it is collaborating ically-biased appointments at the top of both
with authorities to find the causes of the accident institutions.
but did not provide a schedule for the restart of In April 2020, Ionel-Emanuel Oproiu, a
the refinery. member of the ruling National Liberal Party
It promised, however, to meet all the contrac- (PNL), was appointed to head ISCIR, less than
tual obligations toward its customers with deliv- two months after joining the accounting depart-
eries from either its own reserves or from the ment of the institution. Previously he has served
trading division of KMG International Group. at Scornicesti city hall in southern Romania.
“The safe restart of the technological installa- Since 2018, CNCIR’s general manager has been
tions on the Petromidia platform depends both Ioana Timofte, the niece of the former head of
on the volume of repair works and verification intelligence services (SRI) Radu Timofte.™

Week 29 22•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P15