RusEnergy

25.05.2005 12:09 MSK MosNews - Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil plans to expand its presence on the U.S. market, the company's CEO Vagit Alekperov said on Tuesday, May 24 at a press conference in New York. "At the present time we sell about eight million tons of oil products in the U.S.," Alekperov said. "The company operates 2,000 gas stations in the northeast part of the United States. This is approximately 30 percent of the total number of our gas stations and at the present time we are increasing the number of stations that work in the U.S. under the Lukoil brand name." The general director of Lukoil-USA Vadim Gluzman explained that three weeks ago the company began to refurbish and re-brand the gas stations that it bought from Getty and Mobil. "Today we have 88 gas stations operating under the Lukoil brand; by the end of the year there will be 200 of them, while the full re-branding program will take up to three years," Gluzman said. "This should definitely have a positive effect on the company's financial activities since right now we have to pay the ExxonMobil corporation almost $25 million annually for the use of the Mobil brand at our gas stations." Lukoil's CEO also said that the oil company is continuing to work on ways of creating a constantly active energy bridge between Russia and the United States. He stressed that "in order to make the U.S. market profitable for Russian oil, there is a need for sea ports and oil terminals that can make large shipments of this oil". Alekperov also noted that Lukoil is "very actively" developing partner relations with U.S. corporation ConocoPhillips, which holds a stake in the Russian company. Last year Lukoil purchased 795 gas stations from Conoco in New Jersey and Pennsylvania states. "We are working along with ConocoPhillips on oil projects in Russia's Timano-Pecherskaya region," he said. "We have no joint projects in the U.S., but we are conducting staff exchanges. 15 of our specialists work in ConocoPhillips headquarters in Houston, TX, while the same number of Americans are working in leadership positions in our company."