Sinopec Corp, Asia`s top oil refiner, will invest to modernise Bulgaria`s bankrupt oil refinery Plama (Pleven) which is expected to restart production in the next several months, the plant`s new owner was quoted by news agency as saying on Tuesday.

Bulgarian-based Highway Logistic Center bought the Balkan country`s second-biggest refinery last year and said it would restart the outdated plant in 2008 to initially process about 600,000 tons (12,000 barrels per day) of crude oil a year. The communist-era Plama has been idle since 1999.

`Sinopec are our main business partners. They will invest to upgrade and expand the production capacity to 2 mln tons (40,000 bpd) of crude per year,` Highway Logistic Center representative Ivailo Ivanov told Reuters. He declined to say whether Sinopec , or China Petroleum&Chemical Corp would acquire a stake in Plama in return. Ivanov also refused to say how much Sinopec will invest in the refinery in northern Bulgaria. He added that a Sinopec delegation will visit the country next week.

Plama`s new owners have said they will invest between 20 and 30 mln euro to restart the refinery and then invest another 80 mln to 120 mln euro to add a reforming and a cracking unit.

Highway Logistic Center says it has secured crude oil supplies from Russia. It is part of a holding company, which has stakes in Russian oilfields and business partners in Britain and China, Ivanov says.

The company acquired the debt-ridden Plama for $33.8 mln at an auction last year.