Mazeikiu Nafta to cooperate with LUKoil

MAZEIKIAI, Lithuania (ELTA) – The agreement between U.S. Williams International operated Mazeikiu Nafta and the Russian oil concern LUKoil over a five-year strategic cooperation plan in the Baltic states, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Poland might be reached by the end of this year as only several items remained unsolved, LUKoil Baltija board chairman Ivan Paleichik stated Nov. 20 after a two-day round of talks in Riga.

LUKoil and Mazeikiu Nafta intend to establish joint crude oil supply and wholesale fuel trade companies in the Baltic states, Poland and the CIS. LUKoil will supply 6 million tons of crude oil to Mazeikiu Nafta a year.

"We have taken one more rather significant step toward the agreement and have settled a number of technical issues. However, some essential ones have remained unresolved, and they could be adjusted only after consultations of members of the task group with heads of their companies. Those issues might be solved at the meeting of presidents of LUKoil and Williams International, Vagit Alekperov and John Bumgarner," Paleichik stated, adding that those questions might be solved very quickly in his opinion.

LUKoil representative refused to inform what issues had not been solved yet.

The remaining issues might be related to profit distribution within joint companies, Lithuanian dailies reported. LUKoil seeks to receive 40 percent of profit from joint activity, as well as concessions for oil products bought from Mazeikiu Nafta.

The joint task group of Williams International, Mazeikiu Nafta and LUKoil held the fourth meeting in Riga on November 16-17. Previous rounds of talks took place in Riga last September.