The obtainment of the vegetable oils from oily plants represents a traditional process in Romania, the historical sources mentioning their existence in Bucharest, even from the first half of the XVIIIth century.
Industrially, we can talk about the processing of the oily seeds in Romania at the middle of the XIXth century.

At the end of the inter-war period, the oil industry in Romania was covering 138 factories, from which 80 % were small factories, which were totally utilizing but more than half of the production capacity.


The oil factory «Argus» was set up in 1943 under the name of SAR ARGUS with a Romanian private capital, with its residence in Constanta, in the ancient region Obor.
In 1948 the nationalization occurs and the change of the name in Intreprinderea Industriala de Stat Argus, later named the Oil Enterprise Constanta / Intreprinderea de ulei.
In 1968 a new investment was begun for the construction of a modern factory with a bigger capacity. The two units functioned together until 1980 when the ancient unit was disaffected.

Argus SA Constanta was set up as a commercial society in 1991, becoming a society with complete private native capital at the end of 1996, representing a success of the privatization method MEBO.

Starting with 2002, SC ARGUS SA is listed on the capital market Rasdaq.