Klaipedos 10-month oil loadings up 51 pct on year

VILNIUS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Lithuania's state-owned oil terminal Klaipedos Nafta <KNF1L.VL) reloaded 6.8 million tonnes of oil products, a rise of 51 percent, in the first 10 months of 2008 compared to 4.5 million tonnes loaded in the same period a year ago, it said on Wednesday.

In September loadings totalled 0.56 million tonnes compared to 0.33 million tonnes same month in 2007.

The terminal said in statement its earnings have already exceeded this year's projections and have reached 98.4 million litas ($36.58 million) in the first 10 months.

It added that its results were better than expected due to increased oil products transhipments from Russian and Belarusian refiners, and renewed loadings from Lithuania's refiner Mazeikiu Nafta.

Mazeikiu, a part of Polish oil group PKN Orlen PKNA.WA, returned to full refining rates at the beginning of this year after restoring its main vacuum distillation unit, which was badly damaged by a fire two years ago.

($1=2.69 Lithuanian Litas)

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis)