Lukoil Carves A Position For Itself In The Oil Industry

While Russian energy companies like Gazprom, Rosneft and now bankrupt Yukos have been dominating the headlines of not only business news, the largest Russian oil group, Lukoil, employed a more subtle approach, reports the Financial Times in a series of articles. In a string of deals examined by the Financial Times, Lukoil has invested $3bn in downstream assets, principally in eastern Europe, including buying three refineries in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria and acquiring 2,000 petrol stations in the region.

Unlike state-controlled Gazprom, Lukoil is a fully-privatised company that works closely with a strategic foreign shareholder – ConocoPhilllips of the US, which owns just under 20 per cent. Read more...