page_title: Borzești Petrochemical Plant
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Borzești Petrochemical Plant / History
caption_attribution_description: Română: Satul Borzești, județul Bacău în anul 1904. În prim-plan Biserica cu hramul „Adormirea Maicii Domnului”, construită între 1493-1494.
context_page_description: Borzeşti Petrochemical Plant is an industrial complex consisting of 5 large-scale plants: Synthetic Rubber and Petrochemicals Complex, No. 10 Oil Refinery, Borzești Chemical Plant, Borzești Power Plant and Chemical Equipment Company, being the largest industrial complex in Bacău County and the largest unit of its kind in Romania, which covers an area of 1,038 hectares, with an average length of 9.4 km and a width of 1.8 to 3.4 km. It is located on the Trotuș Valley, on the northeastern outskirts of Onești.
  Its construction began in 1952 and the first plants were put into operation in 1956 at the No. 10 Oil Refinery.
  On April 1, 1969, the three distinct plants on the industrial platform in Borzeşti merged into the giant "Petrochemical Industrial Group Borzeşti" complex, and in 1973 it was renamed the "Borzeşti Petrochemical Plant". The abandonment of the centralized management system of the Romanian economy in 1990 determined the reappearance of the distinct entities, thus the Petrochemical Platform was divided into the private companies: Carom Onești, Rafo, Chimcomplex, Întreprinderea Electrocentrale Borzeşti and Uton.
context_section_description: In 1952, a team of geographers and urbanists headed by Mihail Florescu, Minister of Chemical Industry, went to the Trotuş Valley to establish the location of a city and a large industrial compound. In this team was also the geographer Vintilă M. Mihăilescu. It was preferred Onești because:
  is located at the meeting place of Trotuș River (158 km) with its most important tributaries: Cașin River (45 km), Oituz River (57 km) and Tazlău River (85 km).
  is situated at a convergence of roads in four main directions: towards Brașov via Târgu Secuiesc through the Oituz Pass; towards Târgu Ocna (with a branch to Slănic-Moldova), Comănești (with a branch to Moinești) and Miercurea Ciuc through Ghimes-Palanca Pass; towards Bacău, through the Tazlău subcarpathian depression (with a branch pointing to Moinești); towards Adjud, in the lower valley of the Trotuș River.
  is seated in a well-populated area.
  is set in a relief made up of a slab built of sandstone gravel in a thick blanket covered with clay, consisting of two terraces, a taller one and a lower one.
  However, natural elements were not enough to achieve a medium-sized city (40-60,000 inhabitants). This is consistent with the French geographer Paul Vidal de La Blache in the sense that "the elements of the site have elements of fixation, whereas those of the situation (geographical position) are factors of progression, of development. The site receives the city, but it is the situation which vivifies it." Vidal's concept was also verified in the case of Onești, the potential regional elements were concentrated in the petrochemical plant: petroleum crude oil from Bacău Region oilfield, sodium chloride from Târgu Ocna mine. The energy base was completed with the methane gas transported through the trans-Carpathian pipeline Nadeș-Oituz Pass.
  The location between Onești and Borzești of a large petrochemical industrial complex - approved by H.C.M. (Hotărârea Consiliului de Miniștrii) No. 1638/1952, an integral part of the measures taken by the Romanian Workers' Party for the development of Western Moldavia, proved to be optimal on technical, economical and social criteria, taking into account the amounts of considerable natural resources in the Trotuș basin. The same decision stipulated the need for the construction of a thermal power plant in Borzeşti, which was to supply the new industrial complex in Onesti with electric and thermal energy. The data in 1951 showed that the electricity demand in Moldova amounted to 1,350 million KWh for the year 1955, that is for 5.6 times more than the entire production of the first year of the 1951-1955 Five-Year Plan.
  By the Decision of the Council of Ministers (H.C.M.) No. 1635/1952, it was envisaged that in the Bacău Region, Târgu Ocna Raion, the construction of Borzești Industrial Group and the related proletarian city, Onești. The industrial zone was built northeast of the former village of Borzești, between the railway and the Trotuș River, its surface exceeding that of other parts of the city. As a result of this decision, in 1952, the colonies for construction workers began to be built and then the foundations of the first apartment buildings. At the city and industrial sites have worked alongside construction workers assembled in colonies and common law detainees or political prisoners. Soon the city had the highest number of intellectuals per thousand inhabitants, and the average age was 28 years old.
  The petrochemical plant was built in four stages: First stage (1952-1960), comprises the first works from the Borzești Thermal Power Plant (1952), the No. 10 Oil Refinery (by H.C.M .1683/1952), the Rubber Plant (H.C.M. 1498/1957) grouped on 610 ha; (1961-1965), the phenol, acetone equipments (1961), synthetic rubber (1963) and styrene-polystyrene (1964), the industrial platform exceeds 846 ha. In the third stage (1966-1970), works were started at Refinery II and the Poly-isoprenic factory. In the fourth stage, two industrial objectives were put into operation: Synthetic Rubber Plant II and Refinery II. The surface of the platform has exceede
caption: The village of Borzesti in 1904. In the foreground Borzești Church and in the far plan the field of the future industrial complex
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