February 25, 1998 - An agreement on cooperation between LUKOIL and the Government of the Chuvash Republic was signed in Cheboksary today by LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov and Chuvash President Nikolai Fyodorov.

The sides have drawn up a program for long-term cooperation in selling petroleum products, and in manufacturing and supplying oil-field and electrical equipment and control systems, and reached an agreement on broadening cooperation between LUKOIL and Chuvashnefteprodukt in selling petroleum products through a chain of gas-filling stations in Chuvashia.

The General Agreement which sets forth the main aspects and principles of cooperation, was supplemented with a protocol on the implementation of individual projects.

The sides, shortly, are to discuss the possibility of establishing a joint-stock company LUKOIL-Chuvashia by LUKOIL (60%), the Chuvash Republic's Property Fund (30%) and by the NORSI-OIL Company (10%). Under this project, the Chuvash government will lease out to LUKOIL-Chuvashia for 25 years and with the right of repurchase the Kanash tank farm, nine gas-filling stations and the unfinished Ishleisky loading facility.

LUKOIL, in turn, will put into service next June a modern gas-filling complex in Cheboksary. The Company is also interested in buying industrial goods from local enterprises.

To implement this program, the sides will set up a working group comprising Chuvashia's Deputy Prime Minister E.Ablyakimov, Minister for Industry, Energy and Food V.Kovalyov, Minister for Agriculture and Food A.Gushkov, First Deputy General Director of Chuvashnefteprodukt V.Petrov, Deputy General Director of Chuvashenergo A.Katashov, LUKOIL's Vice President V.Sharifov, Head of the Principal Department for Procurement A.Smirnov, Head of the Department for Planning and Coordination of Petroleum Products Supplies S.Fedortsov, acting Director of LUKOIL-Nizhni Novgorod R.Sultanov and NORSI-OIL Vice President V.Dmitriyev.

Earlier, LUKOIL had signed agreements on cooperation with the administration of St.Petersburg, the Saratov, Leningrad, Nizhni Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Astrakhan, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Vologda, Volgograd, Sverdlovsk and Kirov regions, the Yamal-Nenets and Chukot autonomous districts, and the republics of Tatarstan, Mari-El, Ingushetia, Yakutia (Sakha), Dagestan and Adygeya.

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