Lukoil plans to reduce investment this year with about 1.5 billion dollars from the amount previously expected, due to lower oil prices, says the group’s General Director, Vagit Alekperov. Wednesday, New York oil quote for WTI closed at a level of about 26.6 dollars/barrel, the lowest price since September 2003.

“Currently, we have three scenarios: the one in which a barrel of oil costs 30 dollars, an optimistic one in which oil is 40 dollars/barrel, and a crisis one with 20 dollars/barrel. If we start from a price of 30 dollars per barrel, we will have to cut with about 1.5 billion dollars the investments planned initially for this year at 8.5 billion dollars”, Vagit Alekperov said.

If the barrel goes down to 20 dollars, the investments will be reduced by another 1.5 billion dollars. Lukoil’s director says the global oil industry has cut investments of about 400 billion dollars last year.

Businesses run by Lukoil in the Baltic countries and Poland are under scrutiny, says Alekperov. “We negotiate selling our assets in the Baltic countries, also possibly those in Poland, because there is no integration with our production facilities. In addition, the tensions that exist in Ukraine affects the company’s work, particularly in Eastern Europe”, he said.