"Lukoil Beopetrol" to invest 25m USD in six new and refurbishment of 10 existing gas stations in Serbia

Company "Lukoil Beopetrol" has announced today (March 26, 2009) that it will invest about 25m USD in this year's business, which is at the level of the last year's investments, and that there is not going to be any dismissal of workers.

The Director General of that company, Aleksandar Panfilov, said at the International Automobile Show that that money would be invested in opening of six new and refurbishment of existing 10 gas stations in Serbia.

- We have fulfilled all the obligations from the sales contract, and these are additional investments - said Panfilov and added that that company had 1,400 workers.

He said that the company registered 15m USD worth of profit in 2008 and that he expected that it would achieve positive business results in 2009.

According to Panfilov, oil storage in Ostružnica was opened last year, while the storage in Doljevac near Niš should be opened next month.

Panfilov said that "Petrohemija" owed money to "Lukoil", but the conversion of that debt into stocks and ownership share in "Petrohemija" is not in the pipeline.

Although "Lukoil" has launched the initiative for change in the Regulations governing oil price, Panfilov said that the negotiations with the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance were still in progress and that the agreement had not been reached to the date.

Russian "Lukoil" bought 79.5% of capital of "Beopetrol" in October 2003 for 117m EUR, and it has become the owner of total of 98% of stocks in the meantime.

Lukoil Srbija a.d. Beograd

HIP-Petrohemija a.d. Pančevo

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Beogradski sajam doo Beograd

Aleksandar Panfilov

International Automobile Show

Regulations governing oil price