On January 3, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Open Joint Stock Company "Vitebsk Oil Extraction Plant" (Vitebsk OEP) has commenced the construction of an elevator complex with a capacity of 20 thousand tons, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the enterprise director, Alexander Mareyko. Currently, the expert examination of the second and third commissioning stages of the construction project is being completed. Equipment for the first commissioning stage has been delivered. The necessity of this investment project is due to the insufficient capacity of the existing elevator, which can only store 15 thousand tons of raw materials. The remaining oilseeds for processing are necessarily stored at other enterprises in the region and the republic. The investment project is included in the program for the development of the oil and fat industry of Belarus for 2011-2015. According to economists' estimates, the payback period for the construction will not exceed 6 years. According to Alexander Mareyko, in accordance with this program, within the five-year period, it is planned to modernize the preparatory, pressing, and filtration departments, increasing the oilseed processing capacity to 400 tons per day. Thanks to the implementation of the development program for the oil and fat industry for 2007-2010, the enterprise underwent phased reconstruction: the extraction shop and its own boiler house were commissioned. The pressing unit, launched in mid-2011, increased the daily rapeseed oilseed processing capacity from 250 tons to 300 tons per day. Annually, the OEP can process 96 thousand tons of oilseeds. In 2011 alone, investments in fixed assets amounted to approximately Br20 billion.