ROMANIA: Investments in the Petromidia refinery have amounted to one billion dollars since it was taken over by KazMunayGas
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The refining capacity of Petromidia, Romania’s largest oil refinery, has increased to over 5 million tons per year, following the completion of its takeover by Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company, KazMunayGas, up from 3.5 million tons in 2007, according to company officials.
Investments made in the past 17 years have amounted to over $1 billion in the Petromidia refinery alone, since the takeover by Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas, says Florian Pop, CEO of Rompetrol Rafinare, the company that manages the Petromidia and Vega refineries.
“We are talking about extensive investment programs, large-scale related facilities that directly support the refinery’s activity and that have transformed Petromidia into the largest refiner and the most important supplier of fuels for the aeronautical industry,” Pop said.
In 2007, Petromidia could process about 3.5 million tons of raw materials, and refining capacity increased to over 5 million tons annually after the takeover was completed, even with a peak of over 6 million tons in 2019.
“For example, in 2019, 6.3 million tons of crude oil were processed, with a decrease in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic to 4.8 million tons, 4.5 million tons in 2021, 5.2 million tons in 2022 and just over 5 million tons in 2023,” Pop added.
In the 45 years since the Petromidia refinery facilities were first started up, about 150 million tons of raw materials have been processed, of which approximately 80 million tons tons from 2007 to the present, that is, more than half of the amount processed throughout its existence.
The overwhelming majority of crude oil and processed raw materials come from Kazakhstan, one of the largest crude oil producers in the Caspian region. Crude oil is mainly transported. These are transported via the Tengiz – Novorossiysk and Atyrau– Samara – Sheharis/Novorossiysk pipelines, i.e. on the territory of the Russian Federation, but the Kazakh state is already carrying out projects to diversify transport routes.
As a result of the increase in processing capacity, but also the expansion of the fuel distribution network, the turnover of Rompetrol Rafinare, the company that manages the Petromidia and Vega refineries, has increased since the takeover by the Kazakh national company, from $2.2 billion in 2007, to $3.7 billion in 2023 and over $2.3 billion in the first 9 months of 2024. Rompetrol Rafinare is one of the largest contributors to the state budget, with $1.12 billion paid in the first nine months of 2024 alone. In the 17 years, contributions to the state budget have approached the value of $23 billion.
The automated loading ramps and tank farm, the hydrogen plant or the mild hydrocracking facility were just a few of the large projects with a major impact on increasing production, but also on providing higher quality products, Florian Pop also said.
