Report: Rosneft faces $100 mln bill to boost Bashneft plant safety

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (PRIME) -- Russia's top oil producer Rosneft will have to spend up to U.S. $100 million to improve standards at aging refineries of Bashneft it bought last year, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing industry sources.

Rosneft took control of the sites in October when it bought a 50% stake in Bashneft for 330 billion rubles as part of Russian privatization efforts.

Now it must address safety concerns after a string of incidents over the last year, including a fire last week, and investigations by Russian industrial safety watchdog Rostekhnadzor.

At least six people died in a fire at a Bashneft plant last July. The company said no one was hurt after a fire at its Ufa refinery last Thursday.

"According to preliminary information, the reasons behind persistent accidents have been breaches in industry safety standards related to organization and carrying out maintenance, servicing, technical diagnosis and checks," Rostekhnadzor said in a statement.

A source at the company said it would need $100 million to upgrade the plants. Another source, familiar with Bashneft's plans, confirmed the scale of possible financing.

Rosneft said it had prepared a program "to eliminate the irregularities which have been found. To eliminate some irregularities, reconstruction and technical re-equipment of the industrial units is needed."

"A significant number of the facilities have been in an unsatisfactory condition," it said.

Bashneft's former management declined to comment.

Bashneft's plants were built mostly in the 1930s and 1940s under former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. They form one of Russia's largest refining hubs with an annual capacity of around 21 million tonnes (420,000 barrels per day).

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