The Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment Fund (FIEKR) has approved two new investment projects aimed at creating synergies to production processes at Rompetrol Rafinare SA’s integrated 5 million-tonne/year Petromidia refinery in Navodari, Romania, on the Black Sea.
Scheduled to be completed in September 2022 at a cost of $35 million, the first project will involve construction and integration of a new dewaxing plant at Petromidia to enable the refinery to expand production of wintertime diesel fuels as well as increase output of aviation jet fuel, said Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunaiGas subsidiary KMG International Group 54.63%, which jointly owns Rompetrol Petromidia with Romania’s Ministry of Economy, Energy & Business Environment 44.69%.
Designed to expand polymer production at Petromidia by more than 30% to help meet regional demand for petrochemicals, the second major project—scheduled for completion in June 2021—involves an $8-million conversion of the refinery’s existing high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit into a polypropylene (PP) plant to increase the site’s current PP production of 90,000 tonnes/year to 120,000 tpy by 2022.
While FIEKR will fully finance costs of the HDPE-PP unit conversion from its own resources, the fund will only cover about 30% of the new dewaxing plant, with the remaining project balance to be secured from local or international financial sources, according KMG International.
Proposed cogeneration plant, gas station network
Established in October 2018, FIEKR aims to allocate an investment of about $1 billion in developing local Romanian energy projects, which previously include the May 2019 approvals to build a cogeneration plant at the Petromidia refinery as well as to develop a regional gas station network to exclusively sell Efix automotive fuels produced by the refinery.
Due for implementation over a 4-yr period, the combined electricity and heat production cogeneration plant will be equipped with the latest technology to ensure increased energy efficiency and compliance with strict environmental protection standards. Alongside supplying heat and hot water to Navodari residents, the cogeneration plant also will provide electricity and industrial steam to support Petromidia’s processing activities.
KMG International said FIEKR is currently in the process of selecting a general contractor to deliver engineering, procurement, and construction on the cogeneration plant. A pool of 17 unidentified local and international companies also have previously expressed interest in supplying technology equipment and solutions for the proposed plant.
In December 2019, FIEKR also inaugurated a new $1.3-million gas station in western Romania’s Timiș Country—on the border of Hungary and Serbia—as part of an existing fuel distribution network that currently includes 20 Rompetrol-branded gas stations. During the next 5 years, FIEKR intends to expand Rompetrol’s fuel distribution network to 84 gas stations in Romania, according to KMG International.
To date, FIEKR’s total investment in Romanian energy projects amounts to $290 million, including the newly announced dewaxing plant and HDPE-PP conversion projects at Petromidia, retail network development, and the planned cogeneration plant.
