The OAO LUKOIL Board of Directors, at its meeting in Moscow today, approved the key indicators of the LUKOIL Group 2011-2013 Mid-term Plan and also the budget and investment program for 2011.

The basic scenario of the Mid-term Plan was developed in accordance with the scenario options of the Russian Federation Budget. The draft plan provides for a step-by-step alignment of the petroleum product duties and the expected rise of the petroleum-product excise tax. The draft is also based on lower duties granted to LUKOIL in the fourth quarter 2010 for the oil produced at the Yu.Korchagin and V.Filanovsky fields in the North Caspian.  At the same time, the plan does not take into account the draft law that establishes a higher Mineral Extraction Tax for gas starting from 2011, and for oil – starting from 2012. 

The 2011 plan was drafted by way of consolidation of the draft budgets of the LUKOIL Group subsidiaries, given the measures aimed at higher revenues, lower costs and better operational performance. 

In hydrocarbon production, a four-percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected in Exploration & Production over 2011-2013. The plan also includes measures aimed at ensuring hydrocarbon production growth through increasing gas production due to proactive implementation of the Program for Utilization of Associated Petroleum Gas and higher production of natural gas at the Khauzak-Shady field in Uzbekistan. However, the plan does not take into account the impact of higher Mineral Extraction Tax rates. 

In the Refining & Marketing, the oil distribution pattern for 2011-2013 is based on a step-by-step alignment of duties for petroleum products and on optimization of crude supplies to the Company’s refineries in Russia as its most efficient business, provided Transneft ensures maximum availability of its pipeline system for running the Company’s oil, and also considering the limitations of the petroleum-product shipping infrastructure and the scheduled maintenance operations at the refineries. 

The Company’s strategy includes maximum focus on a higher cash flow, optimized and reduced operating expenses, and on brisk international business.

The investment pattern with a breakdown by business segment for the three-year period is shown below: 

·     Exploration & Production – up to 80%;

·     Refining & Marketing – up to 20%.

The program also provides for a gradual increase in dividend payouts. 

The Board of Directors also decided to continue efforts aimed at the creation within the Company of a unified research and design body to pursue long-term goals and reach the technological level of the world’s leading oil companies through innovation development, identification and implementation of new breakthrough technologies, higher efficacy of design solutions, superior technical competencies and better knowledge management. 

Given today’s business division into Exploration & Production and Refining & Marketing, the Company is proactive in creating unified engineering centers for the respective business segments:

·     OOO LUKOIL-Engineering for Exploration & Production;

·     OAO LUKOIL-Nizhegorodniinefteproekt for Refining & Marketing;

·     OOO LUKOIL-Energoengineering for the Power Generation segment. 

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Forward-looking Statements

Some statements of this press release are not historical facts, but rather represent expectations or forecasts of future events. Such terms as “consider”, “anticipate”, “expect”, “suppose”, “intend”, “plan” and other words with similar meaning are intended to identify forward-looking statements. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. One should be aware that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ significantly from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements regarding the future. Such factors include inflation, interest and exchange rate fluctuations, oil price, political impact of the Russian Government and changes ensuing from it, influence of competition in regions of the Company’s presence and areas of the Company’s business activities etc. The above-indicated list of factors is far from exhaustive. When relying on forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and events, especially in light of the political, economic, social and legal environment in which the Group operates. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are published. Given the unconditional observance of all standing obligations imposed on OAO LUKOIL by the UK Listing Authority, the Company shall not undertake to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. OAO LUKOIL does not make any representation, warranty or prediction that the results anticipated by such forward looking statements will be achieved, and such forward-looking statements represent, in each case, only one of the many possible scenarios and should not be viewed as the most likely or standard scenario.

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