Rompetrol Petrochemicals, the petrochemicals division of The Rompetrol Group NV (TRG), commenced LDPE production as a result of investments totalling USD 30 million in modernizing and building a liquefied gas sea terminal. The company will produce up to 60,000 tons of LDPE per year, thus boosting turnover by 40 percent.
“Starting the LDPE installation is the first step we take in a vast investment plan totalling USD 400 million and aiming at further developing Rompetrol Petrochemicals in the following three years. By 2010 the company’s production capacity will reach 500,000 tons/year for polymers and 200,000 tons/year for ethylene, thus having the size required for becoming a significant player on the Central and Eastern European market,” said Cosmin Cocean, refining and petrochemicals vice-president of TRG.
Immediately after acquiring the Petromidia refinery in 2001, TRG envisaged a strategic goal of resuming petrochemicals-related operations, which were halted prior to the privatization of the plant at a time when the Romanian petrochemical industry was going through a difficult period.
The LDPE installation had been mothballed in 1996 due to lack of ethylene feedstock. Rominserv, TRG’s general contractor, restarted operations in the second quarter of 2005 by overhauling and modernizing the LDPE components (compressors, reactor, and extruder) and adjacent installations (cryogenic storage facility, warehouses).
The investment further included the construction of the only marine liquefied gas terminal in Romania, which allows supply of ethylene delivered by sea. An additional greenfield investment was aimed at building a new automatic packaging installation serving the LDPE plant.
The modernization of the cryogenic storage facility and the construction of the marine terminal also support the next development stage, which is the start-up of the high density polyethylene (HDPE) installation in the first half of next year. Its capacity will also be 60,000 tons per year, allowing Rompetrol Petrochemicals to supply up to 200,000 tons of polymers by the end of 2007.
The main ethylene supplier for the LDPE installation is US group Dow Chemicals – the world’s largest polyethylene producer. Last April, Rompetrol Petrochemicals entered a partnership agreement with Dow for the next 14 years, a duration comprising both the modernization program and subsequent development of the TRG petrochemical plant.