Rompetrol Group Commissions $100 Million Midia Marine Terminal in Romania and Unloads 450,000 Barrels of Crude Oil

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Rompetrol Group NV (BSE:RRC) (Constanta, Romania), a leading multinational petroleum exploration, refining, and trading company, recently commissioned a new crude oil terminal in Constanta off the Black Sea coast. An unidentified tanker, the first crude oil ship through the new Midia Marine Terminal, unloaded about 450,000 barrels of crude oil at Rompetrol Rafinare, the group's primary refinery in Constanta. The crude oil was successfully transferred to the refinery's storage tank.

Construction of the Midia Marine terminal, located about 8.8 kilometers off the Black Sea, was completed at the end of last year at a cost of more than $100 million. The terminal is capable of transferring 24 million tons per year of petroleum. The terminal will result in significant cost savings of as much as $4-5 per ton of crude transferred as the distance in transporting to the refinery has decreased by 33 kilometers. In addition, the new terminal has also removed technological losses that were being incurred earlier. Before the new terminal, crude was supplied to the refinery through the Constanta harbor. The Midia Marine terminal can handle carriers with a maximum capacity of 160,000 of deadweight tonnage. A floating docking system, which is connected to the tank park of the refinery through a land and underwater pipeline system, facilitates loading and unloading of crude oil.

Construction of the terminal project was undertaken after a comprehensive feasibility study was conducted. The technical study addressed geophysical, geotechnical and various environmental parameters such as waves, wind, earthquake activity and water temperatures along the pipeline's route.

The new crude oil terminal is a strategic initiative by the Rompetrol Group to strengthen its position as a prominent player for supplying crude oil to refineries in Western and Central Europe. The group also aims to bridge Eastern Europe's oil sources with the Western European markets for refined oil.

Rompetrol Rafinare has earmarked more than $40 million to increase the storage capacities of its reservoirs, improve operational efficiency and modernize the facility. Rompetrol Rafinare refined 90,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of crude oil last year, the highest ever in a year and a 13% increase over the 79,200 BBL/d processed in 2007. The group intends to augment its storage capacity to 1.5 million tons of petroleum from the existing 500,000 tons. The company is also planning to invest $29 million to enhance the transfer capacity of downstream products through the Midina Navodari harbor by 350%.

Rompetrol operates in 13 countries with the majority of its assets and operations based in France, Romania and Southeast Europe. The company is working to become one of the largest independent oil companies in Europe and developing a strong position in the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.

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