LUKOIL to buy European retail assets from Conoco

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) Russia's top oil producer LUKOIL plans to buy European retail assets from its U.S. shareholder ConocoPhillips and is also hoping to buy Czech refining capacity, the firm said.

''The purchase of the retail network will allow us to increase sales of refined products by 1.4 million tonnes a year,'' LUKOIL Vice President Leonid Fedun told a presentation to promote a rouble bond issue by the company.

Conoco's Jet retail network comprises 383 filling stations in six European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia and Finland. Conoco owns almost 20 percent of LUKOIL.

''The value of this deal is the subject of the final stage of talks,'' Fedun said, declining to give a specific figure. He said LUKOIL would pay cash.

ConocoPhillips spokesman Philip Blackburn said the company ''is in discussions with Lukoil regarding various European service station assets but the negotiations have not yet been concluded.'' LUKOIL's Fedun said his company may also clinch a deal to access refining capacity of Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol.

Unipetrol has right of first refusal for Conoco's 16.3 percent stake in Ceska Rafinerska, the refining company 51 percent owned by Unipetrol. Shell and Eni are also shareholders.

A Unipetrol spokeswoman said the firm had a significant interest in buying the Conoco stake if it was for sale.

She declined to comment on LUKOIL's intention to buy into Unipetrol's refining and said she had heard nothing of any shifts in ownership in Rafinerska.

REUTERS DKS PM0502