Ploiesti

Ploieşti (ployĕsht`), city (1990 pop. 259,014), S central Romania, in Walachia. It is the chief center of the Romanian petroleum industry and of the Ploieşti oil region. The city is a railroad hub and is linked by oil pipelines with Bucharest and the ports of Giurgiu on the Danube River and Constanţa on the Black Sea. It has large refineries and oil storage installations and is an industrial center with varied manufactures. Founded in 1596 by Prince Michael the Brave of Walachia, Ploieşti grew in the 19th cent. into the largest oil-producing center of SE Europe. After Romania signed (1940) a mutual cooperation pact with the Axis powers that provided substantial Romanian oil to Germany, the Allies heavily bombed the city. An earthquake in 1940 also inflicted severe damage. After World War II, Romania nationalized the Ploieşti oil industry, which until then had been owned largely by foreign interests. Under Communist rule, massive investments in the petroleum and petrochemical industries were made in the drive to modernize.

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Ploieşti 

a city in southern Rumania; administrative center of Prahova District. Population, 170,000 (1972). Ploieşti is an important transportation junction, with seven railroad lines, as well as highways and oil and gas pipelines. It is the center of Rumania’s main oil-producing region. Natural gas and oil are extracted nearby, as well as brown coal and rock salt. Among the leading industries are petroleum refining and machine building; the latter is represented by enterprises that produce bearings, transportation equipment, and equipment for the petroleum and chemical industries. The products of local food-processing enterprises include meat, milk, flour, wine, spirits, and baked goods. Ploieşti’s chemical industry produces plastics, detergents, toxic chemicals used in agriculture, paints, and rubber goods. Other industries include printing and the production of woolen textiles, glass, faience, leather goods, and building materials. There is a steam electric power plant in Ploieşti.

REFERENCE

Ploieşti. Bucharest, 1966.