Arpechim Refinery was one of the largest

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

refineries A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries a ...

and one of the largest in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, located in

Pitești Pitești () is a city in Romania, located on the river Argeș (river), Argeș. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated in th ...

Argeș County Argeș County () is a county (''județ'') of Romania, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Pitești. Demographics At the 2021 Romanian census, 2021 census, the county had a population of 569,932 and the population density was . At the 2011 Ro ...

, and had both refining and petrochemical capacities. It was closed in 2011. The refinery had two processing modules with a nominal capacity of 6.5 million tonnes/year. The facility was connected by pipeline to the

oil field 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 prese ...

s in the Oltenia Region and to the Port of Constanţa. The refinery produced around 60% of all the

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

used in Romania.

History

Arpechim was founded in 1964 in a strategic industrial zone located in Southern Romania near

. In the same year the refinery built its first plant specialised in the production of

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

. In 1967 another two distinct units were established, the Pitești Refinery and the Petrochemical Complex () and the Thermal Power Station (). In 1971 the refinery was integrated with the Petrochemical Complex. In 1997 the state established

Petrom OMV Petrom S.A. is a Romanian integrated oil company, controlled by Austria's OMV. It is one of the largest corporations in Romania and the largest oil and gas producer in Southeast Europe. Since 2004 it is a subsidiary of OMV. With 2022 reve ...

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 engine ...

with a reduced

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

content. In 2005 the refinery concludes the building of a new

gasoil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine fuel ...

hydrotreater and new hydrogen plant. In 2007,

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. The Arpechim Refinery closed in 2011. EUR 52m was allocated by OMV in 2022 for remedial work to the soil on the old site.

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