LUKoil to Acquire European Gas Station Chain

LUKoil said Monday that it would acquire a chain of European gas stations from ConocoPhillips.

LUKoil is to buy the Jet network of 376 gas stations that operates in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Finland, company vice president Leonid Fedun said Monday.

The deal will boost LUKoil's international retail sales by 1.4 million tons of gasoline per year, or nearly 20 percent more than the 7.4 million tons forecast for 2006.

In 2005, LUKoil said it had sold 7.1 million tons through gas stations overseas, worth some $6.3 billion at the time.

Fedun said LUKoil was also mulling the purchase of a major European oil refinery, as well as a possible stake in Czech refiner Unipetrol.