Oil and gas company Rompetrol Rafinare, part of Rompetrol Group, recently completed revamping the coker unit within the Petromidia refinery, following an investment of around USD 53 million, reads a statement of the company.

The coker unit’s revamping is part of Rompetrol Group and its shareholder KazMunayGas’s strategy to align Petromidia refinery’s technological processes and facilities to the European standards. “The investments in technologies and environment on the Petromidia platform increased to USD 600 million in the last five years and the coker modernization project determined high technological flow performance by increasing its effectiveness,” said Sorin Graure, Rompetrol Rafinare’s General Director.

The unit revamp started in 2008 and was developed in partnership with Rominserv, the general contractor of Rompetrol Group, and exploration and production company ConocoPhillips.

This modernization process triggered a 90 percent cut in technological consumption, an annual decrease of USD 3 million in technological losses, as well as a significant reduction of energy consumption, according to the company.

The coker unit has an annual capacity of 1.17 million tonnes and provides superior processing of the vacuum residue derived from vacuum distillation, to obtain integrated products, such as gas, gasoline, light gasoil, heavy gasoil and coke.

Following the USD 1.3 billion investments supported by Rompetrol Group between 2007 and 2012, Petromodia refinery increased its production capacity to 14,000 tonnes per day, the maximum volume being reached in May – June, 2013.

Rompetrol Rafinare recorded a consolidated gross turnover of USD 4.6 billion in 2012, while its operating result (EBITDA) was of USD 76.8 million. In the first quarter of 2013, the company decreased its loss by 60 percent over the same period in 2012, and posted a net turnover of USD 728 million.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com