Interfax citing Mr Valery Subbotin Lukoil vice president as saying that Lukoil oil company hopes to restart operations at Odessa Oil Refinery in 2011 with the injection of Urals blend oil which will be supplied via the Yuzhnyi port.

He said that "We won't be working with Azeri Light oil blend. He added that Russian Prime Minister Mr Vladimir Putin instructed Transneft three weeks ago to work on ensuring the supply of Urals blend to Yuzhnyi Port at a volume of 9 million tonnes annually.”

Owing to the situation that has arisen on Ukraine petroleum product market as well as changes in oil supply, Odessa Oil Refinery halted operations in October 2010 owing to low operational efficiency. Also, at the start of 2010, the refinery stopped operating for a month and a half of repair-time.

Total refining at the facility dropped by 29.4% in 2010 to 1.4 million tonnes.

(Sourced from Interfax)