Ploiesti – The City Of "Black Gold"

Ploiesti – The City Of "Black Gold"Situated in the south – eastern Romania, with a population of over 250,000 inhabitants, Ploiesti is one of Romania’s most important cities, on the second place after Bucharest as for the industrial production. Find out more!
At a 60 km distance from Bucharest, crossed by the 26° meridian and the 44° 55’ parallel, Ploieşti is the petroleum industrial citadel. Ploieşti is also known for the production and exportation of the petrochemical, chemical and petroleum equipment, heavy – duty bearings, cables, detergents, cloths, furniture, as well for the civil and industrial engineering made abroad. The economic potential of the city is remarkable, due to the tradition and professionalism of the designing companies (Petrostar, Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, IPIP, Comproiect 92, Maad International, in the domain of the chemical and petrochemical equipment, IPCUP S.A. in the domain of drilling and exploitation equipment, ICERP in the domain of petrochemical products, Consproiect in the civil and industrial engineering) due to the activity of some important companies, beginning with the four refineries (Petrotel – LUK Oil S.A, Astra Romana, VEGA and S.N.P. Petrom Petrobrazi), and continuing by the distribution firms for petroleum products (S.N.P. Petrom Peco Prahova, Shell, MOL Romania), by those in the chemical and petroleum equipment branch (Upetrom 1 MAI, UZUC, Uztel, 24 Ianuarie, Flintab Romania), by the heavy – duty bearings plant that has just been bought by the American company Timken (Timken Romania), by the steel cables plant Cablul Romanesc, by the pipeline oil transport Conpet, by the polyethylene products plant Politeh, by the detergents plant Dero lever, by the cloths factory Dorobantul, by the ready – made clothes factory Modexim, by the furniture plant Anteco, by the food and drink plants Societatea De Îmbuteliat Cola – Cola, PROLA, EFES PilsnerI, Extrapan, DI Apollo Industria Carnii, the tobacco industry – British American Tobacco, in the printing industry - Mayr Melnhof Packaging Romania, in constructions (Ciprom, Inspet, UMO, Contrasimex, ASCM., Constil). The private initiative led to the creation of some important firms in the construction sector (Rool Construct, NOVA – Cons) and in the computer manufacturing (Sprint Computers, Platin Systems) The municipality As any settlement, Ploieşti has always had a leader of its own. First, there were a magistrate and town councilors, afterwards a chairman and an executive committee and finally a mayor and a town council. All of them did their best to solve the town’s problems concerning the aspect, the constructions, the public utilities, the salubrity and contribution to the local economical development, social protection, culture, education and local patrimony. At first, the municipality did not have premises of its own, renting various buildings. Later on they afforded to get two buildings constructed. The first one ("The Old Town Hall"), which used to be situated on the present – day "Prahova" Hotel, housed the Town Hall between 1868 and 1894. It was demolished after 1940. Between 1894 – 1972, the Town Hall was to be found in the "New Town Hall". The edifice, designed to become a museum of the city after 1972, had to be demolished after the 1977 earthquake. Since 1972, the Town Hall has carried out its activity in the building of the Administrative Palace. Besides this building, the public services carry out their activity in other premises as a result of the development and diversification of the activity: inside the Central Market – which has been administrated by the municipality since 1997 – the Patrimony Board and the Fiscal Board carry out activity; the former house of the mayor Radu Stanian which has became the Weddings’ House, houses the Registry Office. At present, trade has developed also in smaller or bigger companies in the private sector, keeping the up–to–date standards. Ploieşti has also been an important business center under the leading of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, having even a local Stock Exchange for a while. The banks from Bucharest opened branches in Ploieşti in short time, joining the existing ones, such as: "Central Bank" (Max Schapira), "Prahova", "Kogălniceanu", the "Romanian General" Bank, which used to finance the petroleum industry. Today, banks have revived in Ploieşti, some of them have found their formerly premises, others have created modern impressive buildings. Among those banks we must mention: the National Bank, the Romanian Commercial Bank, the Romanian Bank of Development, Bank Post, the "Transylvania" Bank, the Agricultural Bank, the Commercial and Industrial Credit Bank, the "Ion Ţiriac" Commercial Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, City Bank, Romextra Bank, Ing Barings Bank. Because oil was also called "Black gold", this city outstands as a representative for this name in Romania. The "black gold" and Ploiesti are practically synonyms.