20 November, 1997. - LUKOIL's first filling station in the Czech Republic opened on November 19 on the 44th kilometre of the Prague-Brno highway.

The Tokheim company supplied the hardware. Four filling pumps will work round the clock. A cafe and free parking area are available. The station meets the European ecological standards.

LUKOIL plans to open at least one more filling station in the Czech Republic before the end of the year. The company supplies 70 percent of crude refined in Czech refineries.

LUKOIL intends to use various marketing approaches such as supplies of under processing arrangements to local refineries in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe in an effort to promote its network and step up the deliveries of products. It may share in the privatization of filling stations in those countries.

"We want retail sales of petroleum products to become as important as oil production and refining," LUKOIL president Vagit Alekperov said. "The globalization of international retail trading of the petroleum products is an important incentive for LUKOIL to adapt the company’s strategies to the conditions of the coming millennium. In this light we view Central and Eastern Europe as a very promising market," he added.

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