Highway Logistic Centre, the new owners of Bulgaria's bankrupt oil refinery Plama planned to modernise the outdated plant and restart production in six months, Ivailo Ivanov, representative of the new owners said on October 24 2007.

Plama, which has been idle since 1999, would initially process 600 000 tonnes (about 12 000 barrels per day) of crude oil a year, Reuters quoted Ivanov as saying.

The new owners would then add a reforming and a cracking unit to the refinery and expand its capacity to an annual 2 million tonnes of crude in the next year and a half, Ivanov told Reuters.

"We will initially invest between 20 and 30 million euros to modernise and restart the refinery. And then we plan an investment of 80 to 120 million euros to build cracking and reforming units," Ivanov said.

UK-based oil services company Petrofac had been hired by Plama to conduct an audit of the refinery and advise them about its restart, he said.

Ivanov said his company had secured crude oil supplies from Russia. Highway Logistic Centre was part of a holding company which had stakes in Russian oilfields and business partners in the UK and China, Reuters said.

Highway Logistic Centre acquired Plama for 44.4 million leva in 2006. The refinery, Bulgaria's biggest, had changed hands several times in the 1990s after its initial privatisation. Critics said various owners had siphoned its funds, which culminated with its insolvency last year, Reuters said.