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Polar region's 1st oil processing plant to be built in Murmansk

Tentative capital investments are estimated at 250,000 million roubles

MURMANSK, September 22 (Itar-Tass) — An oil processing plant, the first one in Russia's Polar region, is to be built here. An understanding about that has been reached during talks between the regional government and the management of Gazprom Company.

Svetlana Bukhantseva, chief specialist at the regional administration's committee on industrial development, ecology and the use of natural resources, has told Itar-Tass, "The most suitable place for the prospective plant, in the opinion of specialists of the GazpromNIIGAZ 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".

Tentative capital investments are estimated at 250,000 million roubles. Oil is supposed 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.

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 petrochemistry.

Murmansk serves a 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.

Alexander Lebedev, president of the regional Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, believes that the local budget will be considerably augmented resultant of the plant's deductions.