ASTANA, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - LUKoil (RTS: LKOH), Russia's No. 1 independent crude oil producer, is in talks with U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips to process its oil in the United States, the company's president said Tuesday.
"We are currently in talks regarding processing our oil at Conoco's refineries in the U.S.," Vagit Alekperov told a news conference in the Kazakh capital. "Unfortunately, the [global] economy is reluctant to accept Russia's oil supplies."
Alekperov said Conoco's proposals were not completely in line with LUKoil's strategy, but praised the U.S. company for strengthening LUKoil's position in the north-east of the U.S. by selling it the Mobil-brand retail network.
In late spring 2004, LUKoil bought Conoco's 779 Mobil stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania through its 100%-owned subsidiary Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc.
LUKoil is a vertically integrated oil and gas company. Russia's ING Bank (Eurasia) is LUKoil's majority shareholder (63.3%), with ConocoPhillips holding a 16.8% stake.
