The explosion at the Petromidia refinery took place after the unit underwent a general overhaul between March and April 2020.
According to experts, Romanian biggest refinery Petromidia, operated by Rompetrol Rafinare which is owned by Kazakh KMGI Group, will remain closed for three to six months following the explosion at one of its units on 2 July.
The company said previously that it is collaborating with authorities to find the causes of the accident but provided no exact date for the resumption of the refinery’s operation. However, it promised to meet all the contractual obligations toward its customers by deliveries from either its own reserves or from the trading division of KMG International Group.
The statement from the company reads that the safe restart of the technological installations on the Petromidia platform depends both on the volume of repair works and verification of the machinery and equipment affected by the incident, and on the procurement of the equipment in the shortest possible time, in order to replace the affected ones.
On 2 July, KMGI Group said that its Petromidia Navodari refinery has stopped operation on 2 July after a fire broke out at one of the installations. An incident took place on the platform of the Petromidia refinery, within the diesel oil refining installation (HPM). The incident resulted in death of three workers.