Klaipedos oil reloadings up 49 pct yr/yr

VILNIUS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Lithuania's oil terminal Klaipedos Nafta (KNF1L.VL) said on Monday it reloaded 8.2 million tonnes of oil products in 2008, a 49 percent rise from a year before.

Klaipedos results were boosted by the country's refiner Mazeikiu Nafta recovering from October 2006 fire and coming back to full refining rates in the beginning of the last year.

In December, the terminal reloaded 0.7 million tonnes, while its loadings for the whole 2007 stood at 5.5 million tonnes.

The preliminary earnings for the whole 2008 were 119.4 million litas ($48.18 million), the terminal added.

Polish oil group PKN Orlen PKNA.WA, which ownes Mazeikiu, said it wanted to acquire the operating control of Klaipedos and to build a product pipeline to the terminal.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said his government might give an answer on selling Klaipedos shares to PKN by mid-January.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis)