Lukoil restarts Romanian refinery

Russia’s OAO Lukoil has restarted operations at its subsidiary AO Petrotel-Lukoil’s 2.4-million tonne/year refinery in Ploiesti, Romania, 55 km outside of Bucharest, after production was halted following an Oct. 2 search and inspection of the plant’s offices by Romanian law enforcement agencies (OGJ Online, Oct. 3, 2014).

Processing units at the refinery were relaunched on Oct. 13, and sales of finished petroleum products have resumed, Lukoil said in a statement.

The Romanian government imposed the forced shutdown of the plant and seized raw materials from the plant following the Oct. 2 search of the premises, according to an Oct. 6 report filed with Bursa de Valori Bucuresti, Romania’s stock exchange.

The search and seizure came amid suspicions that the Lukoil subsidiary failed to pay Romania all taxes owed on its refining operations in the country.