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Gold/Mining/Energy : LUKOY The largest oil company in the world LukOil unknown -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fred Levine who wrote (843)	7/26/2001 7:42:59 PM
From: Fred Levine	Respond to of 914

O'Neil: Reforms can be put into practice MOSCOW - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said on Wednesday that it was important that Russia put newly passed economic reforms into practice to reassure companies that might be willing to invest there. Speaking to reporters as he flew to Moscow from London, O'Neill said Russia knew that American and European businesses were looking at investment opportunities in Russia but had reservations. "I believe we haven't seen more (investment in Russia) because of the absence of the rule of law and enforceable contracts and having to pay people off in order to do business," O'Neill said. Russia's parliament has passed several key bills in its spring session, greatly furthering President Vladimir Putin's plans for economic reform. "The real challenge is to see implementation take place...we need to see some practice," said O'Neill, who is scheduled to meet Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury secretary was accompanied to Moscow by Commerce Secretary Don Evans. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice also was in Moscow for meetings. O'Neill, who will meet Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, said in response to questions that it was unlikely there would be much discussion about Russia's debt repayments. The country is expected to face a bulge in external debt obligations in 2003 but Kudrin has said it will meet all its payments. Moscow had rattled financial markets early in the year by saying it would not pay $1.5 billion due to the Paris Club of debtor nations in the first quarter, but later backtracked and paid. O'Neill had sent Kudrin a letter at the time saying Russia should pay its debts because its economy was growing rapidly enough for it to do so. "I think it's a great thing that the whole issue evaporated because it did take it off the table," O'Neill said en route to Moscow. O'Neill said he hoped his visit, and his talks with top Kremlin officials, would contribute to an atmosphere in which each country can be helpful to one another on the economic front. He said one of the best ways to build bridges between the two nations, and to reduce tensions from the past, was to promote more economic integration and to help Russia find ways to increase its citizens' standards of living. "It's a multi-faceted step in developing a regularized process to talk about how we can be helpful and, when asked, (to offer) our judgment about things that they might be able to do to quicken the pace of economic growth for Russia," he said. /Reuters/ fred

To: Fred Levine who wrote (843)	7/26/2001 7:48:07 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 914

Kazakh-Russian oil line delayed ALMATY - The opening ceremony of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's crude oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Russia has been put back from August 6 and no new date has been set, a Kazakh government official said on Thursday, according to Reuters. The official said the Kazakh authorities had been officially notified of the delay by CPC. "Now it has been postponed. To what date is not known," he told Reuters. The consortium's Moscow office was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday morning. The pipeline is the first linking Kazakhstan's vast crude reserves directly to international markets. The 1,510 km pipeline, with an initial capacity of 560,000 barrels per day, connects Kazakhstan's huge Tengiz field with the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, Reuters reports. CPC told Reuters earlier this month that because of delays in getting the oil from Tengiz to Novorossiisk, the first tanker would not load until the end of August, although the opening ceremony had been set to go ahead on August 6 despite this. fred