[RUSSIA] LUKoil Appeals for Anti-Monopoly Intervention

LUKoil will ask the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to intervene in a dispute with aluminum firm United Company RusAl over oil coke supplies, the oil company's vice president, Valery Subbotin, told reporters Thursday.

Subbotin said LUKoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer, would appeal to the service in an attempt to get RusAl to pay higher prices for oil coke, which is used in the production of anodes and anode paste in RusAl's smelters.

"We will turn to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service in order to oblige RusAl to pay market price," Subbotin said. "Coke prices have changed three times. We suggested that they reconsider the price. They refused."

RusAl this month filed a lawsuit against LUKoil for an alleged breach of a long-term contract to supply oil coke to its smelters.

RusAl, the world's largest aluminum producer, said on Aug. 13 that oil coke shipments from LUKoil had almost halved since April and accused the firm of cutting shipments in violation of a supply contract signed in 2006 that runs until April 2011.

RusAl said then that it was buying replacement oil coke from China and Azerbaijan. Subbotin alleged that the firm was importing oil coke at $600 per ton and buying it from LUKoil at $220 per ton.



Source: The Moscow Times





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