| Arpechim Refinery | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Oil refinery |
| Location | Piteşti, Argeş County |
| Elevation | 220 m (722 ft) |
| Completed | 1964 |
| Height | 180 metres (chimney) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor area | 500 hectares (53,819,552 sq ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | Petrom |
Arpechim Refinery is one of the largest Romanian refineries and one of the largest in Eastern Europe, located in Piteşti, Argeş County, and has both refining and petrochemical capacities.[1] The refinery has two processing modules with a nominal capacity of 6.5 million tonnes/year.[1] Now only one of the two modules is operating with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes/year or 70,000 bbl/d (11,000 m3/d).[1] The facility is connected by pipeline to the oil fields in the Oltenia Region and to the Port of Constanţa.[1] The refinery produces around 60% of all the bitumen used in Romania.[2]
Arpechim was founded in 1964 in a strategic industrial zone located in Southern Romania near Piteşti.[3] In the same year the refinery built its first plant specialised in the production of carbon black.[3] In 1967 another two distinct units were established, the Piteşti Refinery and the Petrochemical Complex (Romanian: Rafinăria Piteşti şi Complexul petrochimic) and the Thermal Power Station (Romanian: Centrala de energie termică).[3] 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.[3] In 1999 Arpechim becomes the first refinery in Europe to produce and export diesel with a reduced sulfur content.[3] In 2005 the refinery concludes the building of a new gasoil hydrotreater and new hydrogen plant.[3]
In 2007 Petrom started negotiations with Oltchim (a major petrochemical company in Romania) for the sale of the petrochemical sector from the Arpechim Refinery.[4] The two companies agreed on the transaction and Oltchim had to pay around US$ 150 million to close the deal.[4] 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.[5]