US embassy cable - 05VILNIUS1224

UNCLAS VILNIUS 001224 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NB, EB/CBA, L, P (DBAME) 
COMMERCE FOR ITA/ADVOCACY CENTER (PNUGENT) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ENRG, EINV, PGOV, PREL, LH, HT25 
SUBJECT: CONOCOPHILLIPS BACK IN TOWN TO PURSUE INTEREST IN 
LITHUANIA'S OIL REFINERY 
 
REF: A. VILNIUS 1186 
 
     B. VILNIUS 1007 
 
1. (SBU) ConocoPhillips (CP) President and CEO James Mulva, 
during a November 18 meeting with Prime Minister Algirdas 
Brazauskas, reiterated CP's interest in buying the Mazeikiu 
Nafta (MN) oil refinery in an equal partnership with the 
Russian oil firm Lukoil.  A PM spokeswoman told us that Mulva 
also promised that CP would invest substantially in 
modernizing MN.  She provided the following readout from the 
meeting. 
 
2. (SBU) Mulva asked the PM why the CP/Lukoil consortium had 
such a poor image in Lithuania.  The PM said that CP did not 
have a poor image in Lithuania, but admitted that Lukoil did, 
especially among the Conservative opposition.  The PM, noting 
that the Conservatives will have a strong say on the MN 
issue, encouraged Mulva to speak to the Conservatives to help 
change this image.  Mulva reportedly replied that he had 
tried to set up a November 18 meeting with Conservative 
leader Andrius Kubilius, but that Kubilius was out of town. 
Mulva said that he would nevertheless try to meet Kubilius 
soon. 
 
3. (SBU) Mulva asked the PM to explain the significance of 
the GOL's decision to begin negotiations with TNK-BP ahead of 
the other bidders.  The PM said that this decision did not 
exclude other contestants and that the GOL would give serious 
and equal consideration to all proposals. 
 
4. (SBU) CP did not request a meeting at the Embassy during 
today's visit to Vilnius.  We tracked down CP President of 
International Downstream Operations Mike Fretwell, who told 
us that the meeting "went quite well" but added that "we have 
a hill to climb," presumably in reference to Lukoil's image 
problem.  He was pressed for time, and said that he would 
send us more details next week about today's meeting. 
MULL