Pravda.RU

Gazprom, Lukoil strike 10-year strategic pact

17:08 2005-03-29
Russia’s top two energy companies, the Gazprom natural gas giant and the
country’s No. 1 oil company Lukoil, signed an agreement Tuesday for a
strategic partnership over the next decade.

Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller and Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov agreed
that the two companies will implement oil and gas exploration and
development projects in Russia’s main gas production region, Yamalo-Nenets
in Western Siberia, the Russian sector of the oil-rich Caspian Sea,
Uzbekistan and other regions.

Miller said the 2005-2014 agreement is “a striking example of a long-term
mutually beneficial interaction between Gazprom and independent gas
producers.”

“Joint use of the capacities and know-how of Gazprom and Lukoil, and of
their labor and financial resources, will support growth of the Russian
economy and help to strengthen the economic position of each company,”
Alekperov said.

So far the cooperation between Lukoil and Gazprom was based on a three-year
strategic partnership signed in November 2002.

In 2003, Gazprom and Lukoil signed a deal to develop a project in the
Caspian Sea together with the Kazakh national oil company KazMunaiGaz. The
same year, the two Russian companies signed a gas supply deal in
Yamalo-Nenets beginning in 2005.

Separately, Alekperov said Lukoil was in talks on the purchase of embattled
oil company Yukos’ controlling stake in Lithuania’s sole refinery Mazeikiu
Nafta, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Yukos holds a 53.7 percent stake in Mazeikiu, while the Lithuanian
government holds a 40.6 percent stake.

Mazeikiu Nafta, which includes a pipeline and offshore oil terminal,
accounts for around 10 percent of Lithuania’s annual gross domestic product.

Yukos, once Russia’s largest oil producer, was slapped with US$28 billion
(T21.5 billion) in tax claims, stripped of its main production unit and is
now on the verge of bankruptcy in what observers see as a politically
motivated attack on its detained founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Assossiated Press