Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Estonia, Good for Business, Russia, Transport

STK Grupp, which belongs to Russian businessmen, commissioned an environmental effects study for this; it will be discussed on September 3, reported LETA.

The planned oil refinery would produce fuel oil used in ships, diesel fuel, fuel oil used in central heating etc.

Sillamäe Port marketing manager Andrei Birov said that the businessmen are interested in the project since the Sillamäe port is located in a favourable location where the borders of the European Union and Russian-Byelorussian-Kazakh customs unions cross.

"Many investors from the West and East naturally want to take advantage of that," Birov.

Birov said that building such a plant would have a positive effect on the development of the economy in the Ida-Virumaa region and Estonia as a while.

Birov said that the plant will not be a big one, they plan to produce around a million tonnes a year but the most modern technologies would be used.

In addition to the oil refinery, a cement factory and soybean refinery are planned in Sillamäe.

Birov said that the cement factory plan was postponed since the Spanish company that wished to build it, had to cut its ambitions due to the local economic crisis.

He promised thought that many economic projects with good perspectives will be launched in Sillamäe and the Sillamäe Port in the next few years.