PRESS: Lukoil not to build large oil, gas chemical complexes

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Lukoil will not build large oil and gas chemical complexes and will implement only those projects that will pay off until 2035, Vice President Leonid Fedun told Kommersant business daily in an interview released on Tuesday.

“We will implement only those projects that are guaranteed to pay off until 2035. We refuse plans to build giant petrochemical complexes, because the market situation is changing and technologies appear that make it possible to make almost endless recycling of plastics. Due to this demand for 3–5 million barrels per day will go away from the market in the future,” he said.

Speaking about the oil price, Fedun said that Lukoil sees it at U.S. $40 per barrel in the worst scenario and believes the price of $50 per barrel is justified.

The possibility of tax hikes for the Russian oil industry at an oil price of $40–50 per barrel has been exhausted, he added.

Lukoil will maintain the level of oil production by 2035 under the scenario of sustainable development of the International Energy Agency (IEA), since most of the company’s projects are profitable even at an oil price of $40 per barrel, Fedun said.

Russia and OPEC will be the main oil suppliers and in the scenario of a tight climate regulation, and the market will need coordination between them, he also said.

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