Lukoil Plans to Invest $3 Billion in Petrochemicals Over the Next Six Years

Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil plans to invest $3 billion in production of petrochemicals within the next 6 years, TASS news agency quoted the company's head, Vagit Alekperov, as saying on Friday.

He was speaking at the launch of an isomerization unit at the NORSI oil refinery that is part of Russia's drive to improve the quality and ecological standards of the fuel. Lukoil has put the unit's annual production capacity at 800,000 tonnes. It will help Lukoil to boost production of gasoline by 400,000 tonnes per year.

According to Refinitiv data, the refinery processed 11.161 million tonnes of crude oil in 2020. It produced 3.317 million tonnes of gasoline, 3.158 million tonnes of diesel and 2.412 million tonnes of fuel oil.

Lukoil was not immediately available for comment.

($1 = 72.6756 roubles)

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Maxim Nazarov; Editing by Barbara Lewis)