YAKUTSK, September 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft plans to invest 560 billion rubles ($14.9 billion) in the construction of the first stage of its Eastern Petrochemical Company (VNKhK), CEO Igor Sechin said Monday at a government meeting devoted to the development of the country’s Far East.

“We have coordinated the approval of the project’s first stage at about 560 billion rubles of investments, which envisages the constriction of the first oil refining line with a 12 million tonne capacity for VNKhK. Transneft will plug us into the main pipeline,” Sechin said.

He added that the total processing capacity will amount to 30 million tonnes, including 12 million tonnes of oil of the second line’s capacity and 6.7 million tonnes of petrochemical capacity.

Sechin also said Rosneft will invest 112 billion rubles ($2.9 billion) in geological exploration on the shelves of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Chukchi Sea in 2014-2018. Currently the company produces 34 million tonnes of oil per year in the Far East, and the output can be increased by 30 million tonnes considering the promising fields.