In Rompetrol Rafinare, the most important company part of Rompetrol group, there are still 200 employees who were there from the very first day of the site back when Ceausescu was in power and who stayed after all the attempts at privatisation and now have one regret: their children will not do the same thing they have been doing for 30 years. What has changed in the oil industry during these three decades, how was its development conceived at the beginning and what will happen next?
"In 1975, construction works for Petromidia refinery started. There was nothing else but an area of reed, sand and seaside. There were several sites where the refinery could be located, but the management of that time did not want to lose a single centimetre of agricultural land. This is how Navodari was chosen," says Alexandru Nicolcioiu, chairman of the board of directors and former chief executive of Rompetrol Rafinare.
The entire refining sector of that time was developed with a single goal: getting a vertical industry that should comprise textiles, petrochemicals, dye and varnish, chemical fertilisers, and all these starting from oil.
Industry expansion was operated on a large scale, though, and after 1989 Romania's refining capacity was oversized compared to domestic needs.
Meanwhile, an extremely important thing changed: the price policy and access to fuel.
Around 6,000 people worked to raise Petromidia refinery, and almost 200 are still there. Around 4.3 million tonnes of crude oil should be refined at Petromidia this year, and the facility's capacity should reach 5 million tonnes next year.
Many felt the privatisation of 2001, when the refinery was taken over by businessman Dinu Patriciu, the current CEO of Rompetrol group, as a shock because they were afraid they would lose their jobs.
Though there are not major regrets as regards their jobs, there is still one when it comes to retirement. "Unfortunately, we haven't managed to persuade our children to come, as they are a little hesitant about the specific activities in the refinery. Still, we have children attending training courses, whom we teach to do right by telling them what we did wrong," says Sandu Gheorghe, 57, chief of installations on Petromidia platform.
Rompetrol Rafinare officials say we will not see the era of oil ending despite all progress in hybrid technology development worldwide.
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