Lukoil prepares European spending spree

RUSSIA'S second-largest oil company, Lukoil, said last month that it has $10bn to spend on expanding its business in the European downstream sector. It will primarily target refining assets, but the acquisition of a medium-sized integrated company is another possibility. The firm's vice-president of strategy, Leonid Fedun, claimed at a meeting in London that recent "corrections" in international stock markets, as well as the exit of Western majors from Europe's refining sector, had created more suitable conditions for Lukoil to make acquisitions in the continent. "The correction will affect our ability to talk [to potential partners]" he said. "Today we can finally talk to sellers in the lan