LUKOIL AND SKOLKOVO FOUNDATION SIGN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Monday, December 13, 2010

Vagit Alekperov, OAO LUKOIL President, and Viktor Vekselberg, President of the Skolkovo Foundation for Development of the Center of Research and Commercializing of New Technologies, signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Company and the Foundation.

According to the document, LUKOIL will focus on scientific research, development and commercialization in the following sectors:

- efficiency in energy industry: oil production and refining;

- traditional power industry: optimization of heating systems;

- clean power industry: technologies of greenhouse-gas utilization;

- alternative power industry: helium reactor, autonomous hydrogen sources of energy;

- energy storage technologies;

- information technologies: establishment of management systems for industry branches.

To achieve the declared objectives, LUKOIL will:

- establish an innovative center within the territory of the Skolkovo Center in 2014 to manage the Company’s R&D activities;

- place orders for R&D with higher education institutions which are Skolkovo partners or with the Skolkovo Institute of Technology.

For its part, the Skolkovo Foundation will:

- allow LUKOIL to access multiuser centers within the implementation framework of the projects in the key activity areas;

- render patent support;

- offer access to investment projects in order to allow LUKOIL to participate in these projects.

To support establishment of the Skolkovo Center infrastructure, LUKOIL will also invest in the construction of office and lab facilities to satisfy the needs of the LUKOIL Innovative Center.

The Parties will establish a working group to draft an Agreement on LUKOIL’s participation in the Skolkovo Center activities and a detailed roadmap for its implementation. The deadline for the Agreement execution is April 1, 2011.