PRESS-CENTRE`S ANNOUNCEMENT

Thursday, July 13, 2006

LUKOIL press-service brings to the notice of all concerned persons that the Company didn’t assigne Andjei Novitsky, a citizen of the Republic of Poland (born on 23.02.1954, native of Lodz city, passport №AF 4743728) to represent the interests of LUKOIL, conduct negotiations or conclude deals on the Company`s behalf.

The Company also states that it didn’t give power of attorney to A. Novitsky №12389-61 d.d. 4.05.2005, the signature on the given document is witnessed by a nonexistant notary and has nothing to do with the genuine signature of President of LUKOIL. Besides that, the power of attorney is printed out on a letterform which is not applicable in the Company.

In this respect OAO LUKOIL declares that it’s not responsible for the deals made by A. Novitsky with the use of falsified documents