Petroleum industry in Campina,Romania-1918.

Oil industry in Moreni,Romania immediately after the Second World War

Puits de petrole en Moreni Roumanie sept 1954

One of the last wooden derricks seen at Moreni oil field.

Oil flowing in wooden tanks.

Oil collection.

Casing hole transport columns.

Petroleum workers drilling for oil in Moreni,Romania-1955.

Oil field full with unit pumps

Pascov Valley and Tuicani Plateau-Moreni ,1950.

A oil well is been repair-Moreni,Romania 1945.

Drilling activities in Moreni, Romania

Anton Raky and his Company "Societatea Campina-Moreni", 1906

From 1898 to 1907, at times with over 100 drilling rigs in action, the Internationale Bohrgesellschaft AG bores a total depth of over 1 million meters, almost 200000 meters of these in just one year. His activity is so successful that the company sometimes distributes dividends of up to 500 percent. In 1901, he founds a company “for exploitation of the Raky system”. In the same year, he steps up his drilling activities in Romania where, in 1904, he opens up the Moreni oilfield. In 1904, together with the Schaaffhausen’sche Bankverein, “Petrolium AG Campina Moreni” is founded in Bucharest. Raky does not only strike oil in Moreni, but in Campina as well, where the boreholes of the IBG are sunk to an unusual depth of 800 meters. One success follows another. In 1905, Raky combines his Romanian enterprises to form the “Regatul Roman”.

The destruction of the Romanian oil wells in 1916-part 2

Remanis of oil tanks at Ploiesti destroyed by the british.

The Kaiser(third from left) visit the oil fields.

An oil well in Romania ,set ablaze by the british

The engineers put the value of the property destroyed towards the end of 1916 at thirty million pounds !A great deal of oil was pumped or run off from the reservoirs into shallow basins, where it was set on fire. It did not explode. It did not blaze up. It burned sullenly, giving off a dense black smoke. All over the country the dense black smoke rolled in sinister, slowly-moving clouds. At a place called Targoviste, twenty miles away, it was thick enough to blot out the daylight and make dark night at four in the afternoon.A nightmare lit up by huge flares of burning petrol, lakes of petrol, rivers of petrol, and always above them dense, black, stinking smoke.

The destruction of the Rumanian oil-wells as seen by a German magazine - 'Illustrirte Berliner Zeitung'

The destruction of the Romanian oil wells in 1916-part 1

Wrecked derricks and pipelines.

German staff officer and party inspect the damage to Ploesti Oil Fields Romania 1916, after British raids

Repairing damage to Ploesti Oil Fields Romania 1916, after British raids.
Petroleum workers moving an oil tank and making repairs.

German staff officer during the tour in oilfield.
Ploiesti Oilfields in 1916 after destruction by British Sappers.Photos taken during the tour of a German staff officer of the oilfields after destruction and during repairs.Romania joined the Allies in late 1916, and the Germans responded by capturing the Romanian oil fields around Ploesti, but they were partly thwarted by a group of British destruction teams led by Colonel John ‘Empire Jack’ Norton-Griffiths. The Romanian government reluctantly gave permission for the destruction and the British Sappers wrecked derricks and pipelines, set the wells ablaze, and left such destruction that production could not be resumed until spring. Output by the Germans for all of 1917 was only one-third that of 1916.

Other stocks of oil destroyed were at :
GAGENI (Prahova) - 1,900 tons belonging to the Orion Company.
PLOESTI (Prahova) - 30,000 tons belonging to the Astra Company and deposited in their pipe fine station.
PLOESTI (Prahova) - 3,000 tons in the Roumanian Consolidated pipe line station.
TELEAJEN (Prahova) - 50,000 tons. This quantity was deposited in the State pipe line tanks.
PLOPENI (Prahova) - 20,500 tons, belonging to the Romana Belgiana Refinery were burnt.
Other oilfields destroyed:
APOSTOLACHE - With 1 drilling and 4 producing wells.
PACURETI - With 1 drilling and 1 producing well.
CEPTURA - W i t h 2 drilling and 1 producing well.
These last three localities had a total daily production of 13 tons, and there was not much activitv to be seen.