Quality, Commitment, Competence: Our History
La Petrolifera Italo Rumena (PIR), parent company of PIR Group, was founded in 1920 by a group of Italian and Rumanian partners (Rumania was at the time one of the major petroleum producing countries in the world). Few years later the Rumanians left the Company to the Italian partners, but the name was left unchanged to these days.
The PIR’s activities began at Porto Corsini - Ravenna on a site where an Italian Navy Base and some hangars and storage tanks for U.S. hydro-plane were located during the First World War. As PIR began its operations not only the tanks but also the hangars became handy, as warehouses for drums and tins which were the most common means of storing oil products at the time. Between the First and the Second World War the PIR’s activity consisted of import, storage and distribution of petroleum products, as well as cereals, sugar, bulk and/or packed dry commodities.
During the Second World War PIR's installations in Ravenna - Porto Corsini were destroyed by bombing, but since 1945 rebuilding started, and by the Fifties the activity had well surpassed pre-war levels. Since then operations were constantly improved and enlarged, logistic services were enhanced, a gas station network was established and a commercial organization for selling heating oils was developed. The storage capacity of the Ravenna - Porto Corsini terminal was increased and better road connections, with direct access to national motorways, were made available. Dry goods storage was transferred to the Magazzini Generali division, which has been constantly developing since 1960.
In the Seventies the terminal for oil products was completely renewed and a brand new terminal for chemicals was built and enlarged within a few years to face increasing demand.
In the Eighties storage of chemicals kept expanding in Ravenna through the acquisition of Adriatank and Decora (which transferred its activity at PIR facilities in 2006) terminals and in Genoa - Multedo through the acquisition of the Superba terminal (the only authorized to store low flash point products in Genoa).
In the Nineties PIR Group rationalized and expanded the storage and handling of oil products in Ravenna by establishing Petra, a joint venture with ENI, acquired a significant holding in Docks Cereali, the largest Mediterranean terminal for the handling of cereals and dry goods and invested in the field of integrated logistics.
After year two thousands PIR Group constantly strengthened the activities in Ravenna - Porto Corsini and expanded in the Mediterranean area through the construction of a brand new terminal for the storage and handling of oil products, LPG and chemicals in the Vlora bay, Albania, managed by La Petrolifera Italo Albanese (PIA) and the acquisition of an important participation of the SSTC terminal for the storage of oil products, located in Zarzis, south Tunisia.
Today PIR Group continually investigates projects to further expand its activities in the fields of tank storage, logistics and distribution in the all Mediterranean area and operates as well in the financial and real estate sector.
