FRANKFURT, August 31, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian oil industry major, OAO Rosneft, puts the damage done to its oil refinery in Lisichansk, Ukraine’s Lugansk region, by shelling on the part of the Ukrainian Army at $ 140 million and it plans to launch talks with the Ukrainian government on getting the reimbursement for the damage, Rosneft President Igor Sechin has said in an interview published by Der Spiegel magazine.
He also said technological oil had disappeared from the refinery as a result of military actions.
“We planned to put into operation a modernized refinery in Lisichansk at the end of this year,” Sechin said. “There were no combat actions or ‘entrenched rebels’ there but Ukrainian artillery destroyed a part of that industrial installation.”
“On top of that, technological oil vanished from the refinery’s pipes,” he said. “We estimate the damage at $ 140 million and we’ll conduct talks with the Ukrainian government on reimbursements to us.”
Sechin described the current developments in the eastern regions of Ukraine as a humanitarian and civil disaster.
“It’s horrible when people are dying and I think the main thing that should be done right now is to stop the bloodshed,” he said.
Rosneft issued an official statement in mid-July that it considered the shelling of the Lisichansk oil refinery as a provocation on the part of Ukrainian competitors.
Rosneft planned to put the modernized refinery into operation this summer. It received the asset by purchasing it from the TNK-BP corporation.
The refinery had a capacity for processing about 8 million tons of crude oil a year. Oil was delivered there by the Samara-Lisichansk pipeline.
Refining in Lisichansk was suspended in March 2012 because of low profitability and unfavorable market situation.
Itar-Tass said earlier that Ukraine’s new authorities declared their intention to nationalize the Lisichansk refinery.