Feb 8, 2012:

Naftna Industrija Srbije AD, Serbia’s biggest oil company controlled by OAO Gazprom Neft, will have its Pancevo refinery ready for the production of Euro-5 grade fuels by October. The overhaul of the facility will be completed in August and production will start after two months of testing, with capacity seen reaching 4 million tons a year in 2013, NIS’s Chief Executive Officer Kirill Kravchenko. “The upgrades will cost an expected 397 million euros ($526 million),” Kravchenko told reporters in Belgrade. The upgrades will cut carbon emissions and include hydro-cracking and hydro-processing facilities, he said.

Gazprom Neft bought Serbian refineries in Pancevo and Novi Sad when it acquired a majority stake in NIS in 2009. It pledged then to invest at least 500 million euros to improve the quality of fuels processed at Pancevo, while using the other refinery to produce base oils and lubricants. By Dow Jones Newswires

By Bloomberg