Vagit Alekperov, OAO LUKOIL President, met with Ms. Paula Lehtomäki, the Minister for Environment of Finland, in Moscow today at the Company's corporate headquarters. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Matti Anttonen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Finland to the Russian Federation, and Mr. Juha Nurminen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the John Nurminen Foundation.

The issues of safe oil transportation across the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea were discussed during the meeting.

The Company’s president told the Finnish guests that LUKOIL operates two oil terminals located in the Baltic Sea (the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions), which accept only double-boarded tankers equipped with cutting-edge ballast water treatment systems. The local navigation vessel motion control system of the terminal located in the Leningrad region is also integral part of the vessel motion control system of the whole Gulf of Finland. During recent years the Company has been exercising strict vetting control of the tankers charted for its cargo transportation.

The Finnish party presented the project named “Safety of tankers,” which is funded by the John Nurminen Foundation. This project is aimed at enhancing navigation safety in the Gulf of Finland through early notification of the shore services of the tankers' routes.

Speaking at the meeting, Vagit Alekperov, OAO LUKOIL President, declared that he believed it to be expedient to present the project “Safety of tankers” to the RF Ministry of Transportation and OAO Sovkomflot, Russia’s major oil carrier.

Vagit Alekperov also invited the Minister for Environment of Finland to visit the Company’s terminal located in the Leningrad region on Vysotsk Island in the near future to see the highest environmental standards adopted at this facility in person.