An executive of Great Northern Paper Co. said Tuesday that the company likely would spend up to $1 billion to upgrade its paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket.

Craig Stevens, executive assistant to the GNP president, said the company was studying several options for the modernization. In an interview after a speech to the Bangor Rotary Club, Stevens said the improvements probably would include a $100 miilion to $150 million pulp machine and a lightweight coated-sheet paper machine to be used in the manufacturing of magazine paper.

“Bowater wants to move into capital investments when the time is right,” said Stevens in his speech to a near capacity crowd at the Bangor Holiday Inn. Stevens estimated these investments would begin in early 1994.

“Further investment is needed far beyond what we have already spent, to realize our goals. … The mills consist of very old machines,” said Stevens, who is second in command at GNP.

Despite these problems, Bowater found Great Northern Paper an attractive investment because of GNP’s work force, extensive hydroelectric facility, and fiber base resources, Stevens said. Bowater now owns 10 percent of the land in Maine.

Stevens asserted that “while others in the paper industry thought we were crazy to invest during a recession in a state which had a reputation for being expensive and difficult, we invested. … We are here to stay. We want to build a reputation not on what we say, but what we do.”

Bowater’s interest in the East Millinocket and Millinocket mills was sparked by a desire to serve a wider segment of the newspaper industry through the production of lightweight paper. The GNP mills’ production of lightweight paper complemented Bowater’s product line of medium and heavyweight paper.

Citing customer demand for recycled paper, Bowater is building a $60 million recycling plant in East Millinocket. This plant is scheduled to be completed by 1993. Construction of the plant has provided 300 to 400 new jobs for the people of Maine, Stevens said. Once operational, the plant will recycle newsprint, directory and coated-paper wastes from all of New England, and provide up to 30 permanent jobs at the plant.

The relicensing of GNP’s hydroelectric facility on the West Branch of the Penobscot River, which provides 35 percent of GNP’s electrical needs, is a major concern to the company. GNP’s current license will expire on Dec. 1, 1993. According to Stevens, the biggest obstacle to the company’s successful application for relicensing is the Department of Environmental Protection’s concerns about water quality.

While Bowater has begun the process of relicensing, some special-interest groups have raised concerns about continued operation of the facility.

“Without access to hydroelectricity, Great Northern wouldn’t have been built. Without relicensing, we will be unable to receive financing for the changes we need to make,” Stevens said.

GNP officials have said previously that future investments in Maine would hinge on timely relicensing of the paper mills’ hydroelectric system.