Arpechim Refinery was one of the largest

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n refineries and one of the largest in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, located in Pitești, Argeș County, and had both refining and petrochemical capacities. It was closed in 2011. The refinery has two processing modules with a nominal capacity of 6.5 million tonnes/year. Now only one of the two modules is operating with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes/year or . The facility is connected by pipeline to the oil fields in the Oltenia Region and to the Port of Constanţa. The refinery produces around 60% of all the bitumen used in Romania.

History

Arpechim was founded in 1964 in a strategic industrial zone located in Southern Romania near Pitești. In the same year the refinery built its first plant specialised in the production of

carbon black Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal and coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil, fluid ...

. In 1967 another two distinct units were established, the Pitești Refinery and the Petrochemical Complex ( ro, Rafinăria Piteşti şi Complexul petrochimic) and the Thermal Power Station ( ro, Termocentrala). In 1971 the refinery was integrated with the Petrochemical Complex. In 1997 the state established Petrom as the national oil company also including the Arpechim Refinery. In 1999 Arpechim becomes the first refinery in

to produce and export

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

with a reduced sulfur content. In 2005 the refinery concludes the building of a new gasoil hydrotreater and new hydrogen plant. In 2007, Petrom started negotiations with Oltchim (a major petrochemical company in Romania) for the sale of the petrochemical sector from the Arpechim Refinery. The two companies agreed on the transaction and Oltchim had to pay around US$ 150 million to close the deal. On February 17, 2009, Petrom decided to sell the petrochemical sector of the Arpechim Refinery to Oltchim for the price of 1 euro (US$ 1.25), but the buying company has to invest US$ 140 million in the sector due to contract clauses.

References

External links

Official site
{{coord, 44.80, N, 24.93, E, type:landmark_region:RO, display=title Oil and gas companies of Romania Oil refineries in Romania Pitești Buildings and structures in Argeș County Companies of Argeș County Non-renewable resource companies established in 1964