LONDON — Oil company TNK-BP said Tuesday that it planned to invest $1.3 billion over the next five years to improve refining rates.
TNK-BP executive vice president for downstream, Didier Baudrand, said the company was looking at opportunities to improve refining and bring it into line with new standards.
"We will invest $1.3 billion in factory reconstruction, but this is to improve the depth of the refinery, not the output capacity — high-octane gasoline instead of fuel oil," Baudrand said at an industry conference.
He said TNK-BP's priority was to improve refining rates rather than increase exports.
The company would also study the acquisition of refining assets within the Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus customs union, he said, but gave few other details.
"From an economic point of view it is most efficient to stick to refining in the duty-free zone, because that allows you to earn the largest profit on oil refining," he said.
"If there's a possibility to take a look at obtaining refinery assets in the customs-union zone, then we will take a look at these assets," he added.
He said TNK-BP wanted to build a very strong and competitive delivery system: "For us that's very important."
(Reuters, Bloomberg)