UPDATE 1-LUKOIL to expand Asia oil products trade H1 2010

(Adds details, comments)

By Seng Li Peng

SINGAPORE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - LUKOIL Asia-Pacific will expand its trading business in this region, especially in naphtha and fuel oil, by first-half 2010, said Litasco CEO Gati al-Jebouri on Wednesday. This is to position itself for sustained demand growth in Asia, which the firm is increasingly turning to for its exports, because the impact of the recession on the sector has not been very severe, even as it looks towards recovery in 2010, he said.

"We are looking to grow our business across the board in Asia, Singapore in particular," he said, adding that LUKOIL has its strength in fuel oil and naphtha in this region.

Litasco is the trading arm of Russian oil major LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).

LUKOIL's refineries have a throughput of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and exported around 6 million tonnes of fuel oil into Asia last year. Figures for 2009 were not immediately available. The company, which has just started exporting naphtha this year, has so far shipped out 120,000 tonnes of the petrochemical feedstocks to Asia since since January.

Although this makes up less than 5 percent of an estimated 3.2 million tonnes of naphtha which had streamed into Asia from the West since January this year, it is still a breakthrough for LUKOIL, traders said.

"We believe there are opportunities (to move cargoes into Asia), especially with the low freight rates at the moment," al-Jebouri told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC).

RESHUFFLING