KMGI planning to double production capacity of Petromidia Refinery

KazMunaiGas International (KMGI) is looking to double the production capacity at the Petromidia Refinery. This is one of the biggest projects under discussion within the Romanian-Kazakh investment fund, and a decision in this regard could be made in the next 3-4 months, after a feasibility study will be conducted.

The goal is to reach a capacity of 10 million tonnes per year, almost double from what is has today. The investment will be around USD 2 billion, which is less than half of a normal investment of this kind. Normally, it takes USD 1 billion for a production capacity of 1 million tonnes, but in Petromidia case there are many things already in place.

“There is the infrastructure, the access to the port. It will cost less than if we start from scratch,” said Azamat Zhangulov, managing director for international projects KMG.

New fuel stations

KMGI plans to open about 70 Rompetrol fuel stations in the next four years, with the opening of about 25 petrol stations planned for 2019-2020, according to Vladimir Rusnac, chief retail offices KMGI.

“In the last years we have opened about 20 stations. For the future we plan to open about 70 stations, in the next 4 years. The development on the retail side is within the Kazakh-Romanian investment fund, which was created at beginning of 2019. For 2019-2020 we plan to open about 25 stations. In addition to the stations built within the fund, we will continue the collaboration with the franchised partners, where we estimate the opening of about 10 stations in the next years,” said Rusnac.

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The new fuel stations will be operated under the Rompetrol brand and standards and will ensure the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs, over 5,000 people involved in various development phases (design, execution, construction) and over 1,200 business partners.

With a duration of 7 years, the Kazakh – Romanian fund has an estimated investment level of approximately one billion dollars. The main priority of the fund concerns the development of energy projects, thus contributing to the development of the energy sector in Romania, as well as to strengthening the country’s energy security by diversifying the sources of oil supply and consolidating a favorable investment climate in Romania, the statement said. .

Rompetrol operates at national level a fuel distribution network consisting of 918 units of supply points (own stations, partner stations, mobile stations), increasing by 14 percent compared to the level from 2017.

Total fuel sales of Rompetrol Downstream and Rompetrol Gas last year reached a level of 2.38 million tonnes (gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas), up 6 percent compared to the volume from 2017.

40 years in activity

Petromidia refinery, which celebrates 40 years of activity, broke last year no less than 11 records, with historical levels reached on raw materials processed (5.92 million tonnes), petroleum products obtained (5.78 million tonnes), production of petrol (1.36 million tons) and diesel (2.75 million tons), aviation fuel (317,000 tons) or the degree of use of the refining capacity (91.98 percent).

The refinery has the highest yield of white products in the region – 86.2 percent and ranks 9th out of 250 refineries in Europe and Africa, according to a study conducted in 2018 by Wood MacKenzie.

During 1979-2018, Petromidia processed a total volume of 122.8 million tons of raw materials and 3.1 million in the first half of this year, the target for 2019 being to reach another historical record – 6.1 million tons.