Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Lukoil, Russia's largest oil producer, and ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner, plan to invest at least $400 million to build four tankers at South Korean Samsung Group's shipyards to ship crude from Arctic fields as far as the U.S.

The first three ice-class tankers will be ordered this year and a fourth will be added as the companies boost production in Russia's Timan-Pechora oil province, said Osman Sapayev, a deputy director of oil production department at Lukoil.

Lukoil and ConocoPhillips plan to invest over $3 billion to explore and develop oil and gas fields in the region, build tankers and expand port of Varandei in the Barents Sea, Sapayev said today in London. The terminal will start shipments in 2007 reaching 240,000 barrels a day capacity beyond 2009.

``Varandei may be expanded to 20 million tons (400,000 barrels a day) if more oil sourced for the project,'' he said. ``The tankers will ship oil to the port of Murmansk, where it will be reloaded into larger vessels for shipments to various markets.''

Lukoil says the tankers, which will be able to ship 70,000 tons of crude, will cost at least $100 million each. OOO Naryanmarneftegaz, where Lukoil holds 70 percent and ConocoPhillips the rest, is holding a tender for the tankers operators.

Russian shippers OAO Sovcomflot and OAO Murmansk Shipping Co., and Europe-based Western Petroleum are competing for the contract, Sapayev said.

Varandei will need a $700 million investment and will load 2 million tons of crude in 2007. The port will handle 5 million tons in 2008 and 10 million tons in 2009.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 11, 2005 13:58 EDT