Russian oil heavyweight Lukoil may trim planned investments for 2009 and postpone by a year or two the construction of a waste treatment plant at its Bourgas refinery on the Black Sea if oil prices dropped to $45 a barrel, the company's president Vagit Alekperov said, as quoted by Interfax news agency.

Lukoil Neftochim, the refining arm of the Russian company's subsidiary in Bulgaria, declined to comment on the statement.

The oil giant will cut investments to $7.5-9 billion, from this year's $15 billion, which included $4 billion on acquisitions, and that is if oil prices stay high in the optimistic scenario. Lukoil has drafted three investment scenarios, which are based on different commodity prices in 2009.

Lukoil plans to back its Bulgarian operations by over $1 billion by the year 2011, earmarking 10 per cent of that figure on environmental protection equipment.

Source: Dnevnik