LUKOIL Promises to Invest $300 Million in Ukrainian Plants

KIEV, Ukraine -- Russia’s LUKOIL company plans to invest nearly $300 million of its assets in Ukraine in the next few years, LUKOIL’s chief Vagit Alekperov said after meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko on Thursday.

He said that the company intended to go ahead with the modernization of the Lukor petrochemical plant and the Odessa oil refinery.

Besides, LUKOIL plans to launch the construction of a plant for the production of industrial oils near Kiev this year. The 18-month-long project is estimated to cost nearly $20 million.



The LUKOIL Company owns seven oil refineries in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania. Their aggregate refining capacity accounts for nearly 58.6 million tons a year.

The LUKOIL-Ukraina Holdings, a production and commercial regional structure of Russian LUKOIL, intends to create a network of 250 gasoline stations. The holdings comprise commodity operator “Litasko Ukraina”, the Lukoil-Odessa oil refinery and the LUKOIL-Ukraina regional sales enterprise.

Vagit Alekperov and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko discussed the investment climate in Ukraine at a meeting in Kiev on Thursday. The Ukrainian leader pledged to create equal rules of the game for all the investors without fail.