RusEnergy

MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest crude producer, LUKoil, and America's ConocoPhillips oil major have set up a joint group to acquire new assets in Russia and abroad, LUKoil's vice-president said Thursday. The group will look into the possibility of purchasing Lithuania's Mazeikiu Nafta oil company, Leonid Fedun said. It is the only crude oil refinery in the Baltic republics. "[LUKoil's] average annual production growth rate in the next 10 years will be 5%-6%. This concerns the assets the company owns at the moment and does not include future acquisitions," Fedun said. LUKoil head Vagit Alekperov met the Lithuanian prime minister Tuesday to discuss buying the government's share in Mazeikiu Nafta. LUKoil, which runs more than 100 gas stations in Lithuania, had proposed linking West Siberian oil deposits to Mazeikiu Nafta's refinery and to European consumers. Since the 1990s, it has tried twice to gain control of the Lithuanian company. In 1999, U.S. pipeline manufacturer Williams International bought stock in the company. LUKoil responded by suspending oil supplies to Mazeikiu. Several years later, the American company sold its shares to Yukos. Yukos Finance, a Yukos subsidiary registered in the Netherlands, holds 53.7% in Mazeikiu Nafta, and the Lithuanian government owns 40.66%. Earlier the Lithuanian prime minister called LUKoil one of the three main contenders for Mazeikiu Nafta along with the Russian-British TNK-BP concern, and Austria-based Baltic Holding. Fedun also said LUKoil was the only [oil] company in Russia with no tax problems. "The tax authorities reaffirmed LUKoil had paid off all its tax arrears," he said.