History of the Region

History of the Industry in Kralupy – the Petroleum Producing Plant

The history of the petroleum and paint producing plants in Kralupy started in 1900 when the Kralupy Refinery of Mineral Oils with home office in Prague was established, and construction of a production plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou commenced.

It started with the construction of an administrative building, laboratory, boiler house, stacks, petroleum, oil and gasoline distillation shops, paraffin producing plant, shipment area, lubricating shop, tank battery, complementary plants and a siding.

The plant’s capacity originally reached 20 thousand tons of crude oil per year. After World War I, capacity increased substantially as many new buildings were constructed and equipment was modernized. In those prosperous times, up to 700 people worked there

An affiliated company – the Austrian Company for Chemical Products – was established in 1910, and its dyes and paints factory was built in 1920 in the vicinity of the petroleum producing plant.

Petroleum and mineral oils were the original main products of the petroleum producing plant; after 1925 it was gasoline and mixture of alcohol and gasoline.

In 1938 the mill building was extended to its actual size approximately.