About Ploieşti

Ploieşti is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia, in Romania. The city is located 56 km north of Bucharest and 39 km north of Henri Coanda International Airport. In 2002, it had a population of 232,527, making it the ninth-largest city in Romania.

History

The town was established in 1596, during the reign of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave). It rapidly flourished as a center for trade and handicraft manufacturing in the 17th and 18th centuries. The road connecting Ploieşti to Brasov was opened in 1864, and the railway arrived in 1882. Many schools and hospitals were built around this time.

In the mid-19th century, the Ploieşti region was one of the world's leading oil extraction and refinerysites.
Between the two World Wars, local industry was boosted by petroleum processing in particular. Major oil companies, most of them foreign, started operations in the city. In 1939, the 12 refineries of Ploieşti provided 80% of the total petroleum processed in Romania.

Although badly damaged after the November 1940 earthquake, the city became the main source of oil for Nazi Germany's war effort during World War II, when Romania was Germany's ally. Thanks to its relative remoteness from airfields, Ploieşti was spared Allied attack until 03 August 1943, when theUnited States Army Air Forces mounted Operation Tidal Wave from Benghazi, North Africa, bombing the refineries in a massive low altitude strike by 178 B-24 Liberator bombers. Although the raid inflicted heavy damage on the ground, much of the damage was soon fixed. In April 1944, the Allies launched decisive attacks from captured airbases in Italy. The most-bombed city in World War II Romania was finally conquered by Soviet troops in August 1944.

Following the war, the new Communist regime nationalised the oil industry, which had largely been privately owned, and made massive investments in the oil and petroleum industry in a bid to modernise the country and minimise the war drama.

Demographics

The population of Ploieşti went from 56,460, as indicated by the December 1912 census returns, up to 252,715 in January 1992. At the end of the year 2001, the population was slightly reduced to 248,399. Since the fall of Communism, however, the city's population continues to gently fall due both to emigration and to a declining birth rate.
Ploieşti city 5,844 ha (14,440 acres) is planned to become the nucleus of a metropolitan area which will count some 11 nearby villages, adding around 70,000 new inhabitants to the administrative area.

Economy

Ploieşti concentrates many foreign investments: OMV-Petrom, Lukoil, Shell Gas, Timken, Yazaky, Coca Cola, Efes Pilsener, British American Tobacco,Interbrew. Many retailers like Carrefour, Metro, Selgros, Kaufland, Billa, Bricostore, Praktiker, Intermarche, Profi, Mega Image found in Ploieşti a continuously growing market. In Ploieşti can also be found two McDonald's restaurants, and only one KFC restaurant opened in 2006. The German retailer Tengelmann expects to have some 30 stores this year and has set itself a target of 120 stores by 2010, investing €200 million. To facilitate its growth, Tengelmann built a depot in Ploieşti. With its Interex operation, the French independent retailer Intermarché intends to become a distribution leader in the Balkans. In Romania the first Interex store was opened in June 2002 in the city of Ploieşti. Unilever has a detergent plant in Ploieşti. By transferring their food production to Ploieşti, the company will concentrate their full activity in Romania to the same location.