Steaua Română Refinery was a

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

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

, located in Câmpina,

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/km². It is Romania's third mos ...

. It was active between 1897 and 2020.

History

Establishment and early years

The presence of oil in the surroundings of Câmpina had already been documented in the 17th century. In 1895, after the first mining law was passed in Romania, the

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certificates ...

Steaua Română was founded with Romanian and

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

capital. The building works started in February 1897, after the company had acquired the

oil fields A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

around Câmpina. Production began in August 1897, at a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year. During the following years, the production facilities were extended, covering an area of 13.5 hectares. With a significant upscaling in 1904, Steaua Română could process 400,000 tons of crude oil annually, becoming the largest refinery in Europe. During its first years, the refinery triggered a local economic and demographic boom, the population of Câmpina surging from around 2,500 inhabitants in 1897 to more than 8,500 in 1912.

World War I and the interwar period

In August 1916, Romania entered

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on the side of the Allied powers. During the same year, many of the refinery installations were strategically destroyed by the Allies to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Later, the area went under German control, and the

wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

and refinery were rebuilt in 1917. Due to the significance of the refinery for the war efforts of the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

, emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and field marshal

August von Mackensen Anton Ludwig Friedrich August von Mackensen (born Mackensen; 6 December 1849 – 8 November 1945), ennobled as "von Mackensen" in 1899, was a German field marshal. He commanded successfully during World War I of 1914–1918 and became one of the ...

personally visited Câmpina on 23 September 1917. During the interwar period, the refinery was further modernised, increasing its capacity to 1.4 million tonnes per year.

World War II and the nationalization

On 22 June 1941, Romania entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Steaua Română continued production, becoming an important war target. On 1 August 1943, British and American squadrons bombed the premises of the refinery during

Operation Tidal Wave Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of ...

, causing important damages to installations and wells. In 1944, between 5–6 May, on 10 August, and again on 18 August, the refinery suffered four more

bombing raids Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

, which rendered it inoperative. After the war, the refinery took four years to become functional again. In 1948, the communist regime nationalized the refinery, which stayed in the property of the Romanian state until 1997.

Final years

The core business of the refinery was temporarily suspended from February 2009 to June 2010 due to a lack of funding for the purchase of crude oil. In July 2010, the company laid off all 334 employees, and it was finally dissolved in 2021.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Oil and gas companies of Romania Oil refineries in Romania Câmpina