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Meyers gets post on Lukoil board, ConocoPhillips boosts share of Lukoil to 10 percent
Allen Baker
Former Alaska oil executive Kevin Meyers has a new challenge — serving on the board of a Russian oil company, Lukoil.
Meyers certainly faced plenty of sticky challenges heading Alaska operations for ARCO, Phillips and then ConocoPhillips, before he was promoted back in October to head exploration and production for ConocoPhillips in Russia and the Caspian Sea. Now he can try to fathom the murky world of Russian capitalism and finance.
Meyers was nominated to the board Dec. 24. He’s part of a slate of a dozen directors for Lukoil, where ConocoPhillips now has a 10 percent stake.
Also nominated to the board was Richard H. Matzke, former vice chairman of Chevron.
The nominations will be submitted to a shareholder meeting Jan. 24 for ratification. From 7.6% to 10% with 20% the goal Company leaders confirmed Dec. 23 that ConocoPhillips had boosted its stake in Lukoil to 10 percent from 7.6 percent, as planned by the end of the year. Lukoil chief executive Vagit Alekperov told reporters that the transaction had been completed, according to Reuters.
In its statement announcing the board nominations, the current board said that as part of its 2005 objectives, “further steps will be taken to implement principal conditions of the planned Strategic Partnership with ConocoPhillips, which is a priority for Lukoil.” It said the company’s restructuring would continue in the new year, “with significant reduction of the number of legal entities in the group, particularly of non-core assets.”
ConocoPhillips bought 7.6 percent of Lukoil from the Russian government in September for just under $2 billion, and said it eventually planned to increase its ownership in Lukoil to 20 percent eventually. At that figure, the U.S. company can book as reserves its portion of Lukoil’s 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent. ConocoPhillips also said at that time that it would set up joint ventures with Lukoil to develop individual fields.
But the ownership share won’t allow ConocoPhillips to block significant moves by Lukoil management, so Meyers will be using his diplomatic skills to protect the billions of dollars in capital that ConocoPhillips has at stake.
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