Bulgarian oil refiner Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, part of Russia's Lukoil, opened a
$71 million (62.8 million euro) sulphur recovery unit-4 (SRU-4) on Thursday, the
country's economy ministry said.
The investment is the first stage of a
larger-scale project, estimated at $1.5 billion, aiming to expand and modernise
production at its plant in Bulgaria, the ministry said in a press
release.
The company will decommission old production facilities and
replace them with modern ones.
The Bulgarian government said in April
last year Lukoil intends to invest $1.5 billion in its Lukoil Neftochim Burgas
plant under the first stage of a project for the development of a heavy residue
processing plant. The next stage of the grand project involves the construction
of a second hydrocracking installation.
Lukoil Neftochim Burgas signed
with Italian company Tecnimont KT-Kinetics Technologies a deal for the
construction of SRU-4 in May 2012.