LUKoil Plans To Buy Refinery In USA

Russia's biggest oil producer, LUKoil, said on Tuesday it was continuing preliminary talks on acquiring a refinery in the United States and might take a final decision before May 2002. "We are working on the issue. We have filling stations (in the USA), so we need a refinery. (The decision) might be taken before May," LUKoil's vice-president Vagit Sharifov told journalists. LUKoil last year bought a 1,300-outlet filling station network in the United States, which it operates under the Getty Petroleum brand. The company is currently buying oil products on the US market as well as trying to provide feedstock for Getty from South America and Europe. LUKoil produces annually up to 80 millions tons (1.6 million barrels per day) of crude oil and has three refineries in Russia, one in Ukraine, the Neftochim refinery in Bulgaria and the Petrotel refinery in Romania, the Russia Journal wrote.