Rompetrol Rafinare - the Petromidia refinery is the first specialized Romanian company which successfully ended the transition period for the alignment of production plants to European environmental requirements.
“The investments made by the Rompetrol Group and KazMunayGas in the capacity increase up to 5 million tonnes also enabled us to significantly reduce the footprint and environmental impact of our activities. They have been supplemented with the amounts allocated for improved environment protection, thus increasing the total investments in the Petromidia platform to more than 1.3 billion USD", declared Sorin Graure, General Manager of Rompetrol Rafinare.
The Petromidia Refinery recently received a new integrated environment authorization from the Constanta Environment Protection Agency, valid for a 10-year period. This acknowledges that the Petromidia platform plants are operated at the highest performance and environment protection standards, and further established operational conditions and parameters (level of air, water and soil emissions, waste management measures).
The transition period (temporary exception from the implementation of EU rules) has been granted on the basis of the obligations undertaken by Romania following the chapter 22 (Environment protection) negotiations with the European Union and pursuant to the obligations under the Treaty of Accession to the European Union, respectively the transposition of Directive no. 96/61/EC on integrated pollution prevention and control.
“We are aware of the importance of environment in our work. This is why we act as a responsible member of society and comply with the relevant Romanian and European regulations in this field. The Petromidia platform main concern is to increase the protection of the Black Sea and Sutghiol Lake, the Danube Delta biosphere and the Midia Canal ecosystem, as well as communities in Dobrogea”, Sorin Graure added.
In the first half of this year, Rompetrol Rafinare allocated more than 55 million USD for scheduled technical works – the overhaul and upgrade of equipments to reflect the new processing capacity of the refinery, the increase of operational safety, compliance with the ISCIR provisions, but also the implementation of environmental projects aligned to the national and EU legislation. Furthermore, the company recently completed the upgrade of the coking plant (a nearly 53 million USD investment), which has an important contribution to the compliance with environment protection rules. Petromidia is the largest Romanian refinery, ensures more than 40% of the country’s refining capacities and is aligned to BAT (Best Available Technologies) standards.
Concurrently with the increase of Petromidia refinery’s capacity from 3.8 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes of raw materials p.a., the Rompetrol Group also developed other side projects, such as building the Black Sea off-shore oil terminal, the threefold increase of the petroleum transit capacity through Pier 9 of the Midia Port, refurbishment of the petroleum and finished products tank farm, and the building of the liquefied petroleum gas import-export terminal.
The Rompetrol Group is fully owned by the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan – KazMunayGas, and is present in 12 countries, with most of its assets and operations deployed in France, Romania, Spain and South-East Europe.
Public Relations and Communication Department
The Rompetrol Group