Rosneft to build oil refinery in Moscow region

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 21 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest crude oil producer Rosneft on Thursday unveiled plans to build a new refinery with annual capacity of 12 million tonnes in the Moscow region as it looks to tighten its grip on the downstream sector.

Rosneft's President Igor Sechin - the former Energy Minister - told reporters that the company had signed the agreement with Moscow region's authorities and secured a 100 billion rouble ($3.07 billion) credit line from Russia's second-largest lender VTB.

"We agreed that we will build a plant with capacity of up to 12 million tonnes ... We will start working on engineering this year," he said without adding further details.

Rosneft's combined domestic refining capacity stands at over 50 million tonnes a year. It also owns a stake in four Ruhr Oel refineries in Germany.

Russian refineries were mostly built between the 1940s and 1970s and the government has encouraged companies to increase and upgrade refining capacity.

Russia has built only one crude refinery since the fall of the Soviet Union, Tatneft's Taneco, which has an annual capacity of 7 million tonnes. ($1 = 32.5245 Russian roubles) (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by John Bowker)