Lukoil a private company?

El Mundo newspaper criticises Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for his passive attitude in face of the Russian oil giant Lukoil's attempt to purchase part of the Spanish oil company Repsol: "The Spanish government's main argument for avoiding responsibility for the sale of Repsol to Lukoil is that it may only intervene to a small extent in operations between private enterprises. But this ploy will be shown up as ludicrous today in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. There Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez will sign an agreement founding the first Latin American energy company, made up of Lukoil and Gazprom on the Russian side and the state-owned Venezuelan company Pdvsa. Can President Zapatero go on treating Lukoil - a political and strategic instrument in the hands of Russia's Prime Minister Putin - like any other company?"

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