Lukoil Erases Losses as CEO Sees Putin Extending Offshore Access

OAO Lukoil, Russia’s largest non-state oil producer, gained after Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov said he expects President Vladimir Putin to ease rules restricting access to offshore fields to government-controlled companies.

The shares rose 0.2 percent to 1,717.10 rubles as of 2:21 p.m. in Moscow, erasing losses of as much as 2.7 percent. Urals crude, Russia’s benchmark export blend, lost 0.7 percent to $110.19 per barrel.

The subsoil resources law is likely to be amended to “remove the disbalance” between state and non-state producers, Alekperov said today in an interview at the Kremlin after Putin’s inauguration. Lukoil will probably gain direct access to resources on the continental shelf in the coming years, he said, declining to comment on talks with state-run OAO Rosneft about offshore cooperation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Jordan in Moscow at jjordan22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net