Rompetrol Rafinare begins maintenance at Petromidia, Vega refineries

Rompetrol Rafinare SA—jointly owned by Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunaiGas subsidiary KMG International Group 54.63% and Romania’s Ministry of Economy, Energy & Business Environment 44.69%—has started nearly 7 weeks of planned maintenance at its 5 million-tonne/year Petromidia refinery in Navodari, Romania, on the Black Sea.

The turnaround, which began on Mar. 13 and will run until Apr. 30, will include general maintenance at both the refining and petrochemical operations of Petromidia’s site, Rompetrol Rafinare said in a filing to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

During the same period, Rompetrol Rafinare said it also will partially reduce production activities at its 8,000-b/d Vega refinery in Pahova County, near Ploiesti, Romania, for a series of turnaround works. The operator said its decision to carry out maintenance at the Vega manufacturing site partially results from a reduction in raw and semifinished materials that will be delivered to the refinery during the Petromidia shutdown period.

While the Petromidia refinery will be fully offline during the scheduled turnaround, Rompetrol Rafinare said it will cover demand for petroleum products from its own existing stocks or those secured from the regional market.

The operator, however, disclosed no details regarding the proposed maintenance projects to be undertaken at either the Petromidia or Vega sites.

Petromidia upgrade

Announcement of the planned maintenance event follows the recent startup of a new LPG recovery system at the Petromidia refinery in late February.

Designed to remove organic sulfur compounds and hydrocarbons from coking gases before they are sent to desulfurization plants and then into the refinery's fuel gas system, the $4.6-million LPG recovery system has a maximum flow-rate processing capacity of 16,000 cu m/hr to ensure improved production flow through recovery and combustion of gases, as well as enable a major reduction of sulfur from gases discharged to the refinery baskets well below the limit imposed by European environmental regulations, Rompetrol Rafinare said on Feb. 24.

"It is a unique project at the level of Romania and is part of [the company’s] strategy of continuous modernization of the operational processes at [its refineries], said Felix Crudu Teslovenau, Rompetrol Rafinare’s general manager.