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Sunday, 12 October, 2008, 13:10 GMT | more prices >>

Lukoil sees ConocoPhillips stake flat



By Upstream staff 

Russia's oil giant Lukoil does not expect US supermajor ConocoPhillips to increase its stake in it to over 20%, the company's chief executive told reporters late yesterday.

Vagit Alekperov, who has a 15% stake in LUKOIL, denied speculation that he or other major stakeholders were planning to exchange their holdings for stakes in ConocoPhillips to help the US company build its holding, Reuters reported.

"We are not going to swap our shares," said Alekperov, one of Russia's richest men with a fortune of around $10 billion, based on Lukoil's market value of $65 billion.

The Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has limited foreign involvement in strategic economic sectors and ConocoPhillips agreed to cap its involvement in Lukoil at 20% when it decided to partner the Russian company several years ago.

Speculation has circulated in the market in the past months that ConocPhillips was seeking to take its holding in Lukoil to 25% with the help of Lukoil's managers.

Alekperov also said Lukoil was optimistic about the prospects of reviving a Saddam-era deal to develop Iraq's giant West Qurna deposit after the Iraqi cabinet approved a draft oil law last month.

"We have had meetings in Davos and those meetings inspire optimism. We are ready to quickly start the project," he said, adding that exploration could start in about two years if Iraq approved the project's implementation.

The $4 billion deal to develop West Qurna is expected to be complicated by the fact that it was scrapped by the government of Saddam Hussein just before he was toppled in 2003.

Iraq's parliament still has to pass the law, which is viewed as an attempt to set out the framework for foreign companies investing in Iraq after decades of sanctions under Saddam and years of violence since the US-led invasion.

Alekperov said Lukoil would send a delegation to Iraq for more talks in March or April.

He also said Lukoil had no plans to bid for the assets of bankrupt oil firm Yukos at the upcoming auctions, at which state-controlled oil company Rosneft and gas export monopoly Gazprom are seen as the front-runners.

Gazprom's oil arm, Gazpromneft and Lukoil plan to set up a venture to jointly develop and bid for assets abroad and in Russia in regions such as Timan Pechora and East Siberia.

"I hope we can agree on the final deal within the next 40-45 days," he said.


Tuesday, 06 March, 2007, 20:10 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 06 March, 2007, 20:10 GMT

No Yukos plans: Lukoil chief executive Vagit Alekperov
 

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