Mazyr Oil Refinery valued at $4 billion

The value of Mazyr Oil Refinery has been estimated at $4 billion, Heorhiy Kuznyatsow, head of the State Property Committee, told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.

He said that the Belarusian government could sell its stake in the refinery as early as this year.

Belarus will be ready to sell the stake to an investor that pledges to satisfy the demand of the Mazyr-based company and the country's other oil refinery, Naftan, for crude oil in full within the next 10 years and build a new oil refinery with an annual refining capacity of 10 million tons, said Mr. Kuznyatsow.

Mazyr Oil Refinery and Naftan can refine a total of 23 million tons of crude oil a year.

Igor Sechin, president of Russia's Rosneft, said in October 2013 that the state-owned company was interested to acquire the Belarusian government's 42.76-percent stake in Mazyr Oil Refinery.

Russia's Slavneft, which is controlled by Gazprom Neft and Rosneft, owns 42.58 percent in the refinery. The remaining shares are held by individuals.

Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Prakapovich said last December that Minsk would agree to sell the stake to Rosneft in exchange for an increase in the amount of crude oil supplied by the Russian company to Belarus to 20 million tons by 2020.