Buckovski Meets LUKoil VP

Macedonian PM Vlade Buckovski met on March 1 with LUKoil Vice President Dimitrij Nikolaevich Tarasov. Among other items on the agenda were, according to MIA, "...Lukoil's potential investment in terms of supply of oil derivatives in Macedonia, including the investments in Skopje-based chemical factory OHIS."

Along with Buckovski, also present was Vice-Premier for Economic Issues and Chairman of the Commission for Macedonian-Russian Economic Cooperation Minco Jordanov, Ministers of Economy and Transport and Communication, Fatmir Besimi and Xheladin Mehazi.

Other subjects in this sphere include the proposed Russian-built gas ring around Skopje and the AMBO oil pipeline project, which is still in need of investors.

UPI Energy Watch adds that while Buckovski and Tarasov "...did not finalize any concrete investments agreements during their meeting on March 1, the two officials did agree to establish working groups to further explore the opportunity to construct gas stations in Macedonia."

According to UPI, Mr. Jordanov added that "...we have started the talks for investments of Lukoil in the country, aiming at boosting the competitiveness, sale, and quality of the oil products." But Tarasov was more coy, stating that "...we set the guidelines for cooperation and the period for organization of the working groups for building gas stations in the country. The government has created a favorable business climate, which will enable us to make a decision on concrete investments. But we didn't discuss on investments at the meeting."