KIEV, April 4 - Ukraine’s plans to allow duty-free imports of one million metric tons will not be enough to restart operation of TNK-BP’s Lisichansk oil refinery this year, a company official said Wednesday.

Volodymyr Zhmak, executive manager at TNK-BP Kommers, a Ukrainian subsidiary of the Russian oil major TNK-BP, said at least 4.8 million metric tons of crude are needed to secure the refinery’s operation in 2012.

“One million metric tons of crude will not save” Lisichansk, Zhmak said in a statement. “We need to have guarantees for the supplies of at least 4.8 million mt of oil per year.”