Plans to build US $7.829 billion oil refinery

Regional government officials and the management of Gazprom have held talks on investing US $7.829 Billion approximately to build an oil refinery whose principal output will be diesel fuel and also create 1,800 jobs, Russian agency (Itar-Tass) reported Thursday quoting a regional administration official. The regional administration''s committee on industrial development, ecology and the use of natural resources, Chief Specialist Svetlana Bukhantseva said, "The most suitable place for the prospective plant, in the opinion of specialists of the Gazprom NIIGAZ design organization, is a relatively smooth site on the western shore of the ice-free Kola Gulf, in proximity to the area of the construction of a new district of the Murmask merchant seaport." The refinery, which probably will be located near the city of Murmansk, will get oil from fields in the Timano-Pechora basin – Prirazlomnoye, Dolginskoye, Varandeyskoye and Medynskoye, according to news agency (Ria Novosti). Oil is expected to be delivered to the plant from offshore deposits, discovered by Russian geologists on the shelf of the Kara and Barents Seas, as well as those in the maritime areas of Western Siberia, Itar-Tass said. Diesel fuel will be the principal output of the plant which will also produce petrol of Ai-95 grade, marine diesel fuel IFO-380, aircraft kerosene and gasoline for petro chemistry. Murmansk serves a large transshipment point for Russian petroleum products. Almost six million tonnes of crude oil is are exported every year via the city''s oil terminals. Following the plant''s coming into operation, the need to bring costly produce which is in short supply, to the region from southern areas of the country will be obviated. Over 1,800 jobs are to be created at the plant under the project expected to start production in 2012.