Rosneft says India's Essar Oil refinery to double throughput

MOSCOW (Reuters) - India's Essar Oil plans to double the throughput of its refinery and create a petrochemical facility in the long-term, a Rosneft's spokesman told Reuters in emailed comments on Monday.

Spokesman for Rosneft, which bought a 49 percent stake in Essar Oil, also said that Essar will increase the number of filling stations to 5,500 from current 3,500 stations in the medium term.

The deal will give Rosneft and its partners control over the 400,000 barrels per day Vadinar refinery in India.

"A long-term plan is to double the throughput of the refinery and to create a petrochemical facility. However, we can speak about the specific plans only when the company's strategy has been examined and endorsed by the board," the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Katya Golubkova)