Romania’s Rompetrol Rafinare resumes ops at diesel hydrotreating unit

The production unit has been completely rehabilitated with new equipment, the company said in a press release.

The actual rehabilitation works of the HPM installation were started in July 2021 and were completed during the technological shutdown that took place between March and April this year.

The plant has a processing capacity of approximately 1 million tonnes per year, with a flow rate of 130 cu m per hour and has the ability to process a mixture of atmospheric distillation diesel, coking diesel and catalytic cracking diesel, at a high degree of desulfurization.

During the period when the HPM plant was not operational, the other hydrofining plants covered the production of diesel, in order to meet the domestic demand for petroleum products. At the same time, with the support of the trading division of KMG International, the company fulfilled all its previously concluded contractual obligations and continued, without disturbances, the deliveries of petroleum products.

The operation of the installations within the Petromidia refinery were interrupted as a result of an explosion that occurred on July 2 in the HPM unit, killing three workers.

At the moment, the Petromidia refinery in Romania is operating at optimal capacity and is to process about 5.6 million tons of raw materials this year, with about 2.7 million tons of diesel and Jet A1 (special aviation fuel).

Rompetrol Rafinare is part of Dutch-based group KMG International, in turn fully owned by Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunaiGroup.

The main shareholders of Rompetrol Rafinare are KMG International with 48.11% and the Romanian State through the energy ministry with 44.7%, data from the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, showed.

Its shares traded flat at 0.076 lei ($0.0171/0.0161 euro) on Friday at 0900 CET, on the BVB.

(1 euro = 4.9432 Romanian lei)