LUKOIL

Brief History

Lukoil, originally established in 1991 as Langespas-Urai-Kogalmneft, which has become the largest private sector firm and expanded aggressively internationally, initially buying chains such as Teboil in Finland (2005) and Avanti in Hungary. Lukoil expanded rapidly in the Balkans, buying a controlling interest in Serbia's second largest service station chain, Beopetrol, and a stake in Bulgaria's largest chain, giving it access to over 450 outlets in that country. It also developed networks in Romania (where it is the second largest chain) and the Ukraine. It is a major player in the three Baltic states, and the largest brand in Lithuania. In 2004 the US firm ConocoPhillips acquired a small stake in Lukoil, and in 2007 they sold their Jet branded operations in Belgium, Finland and Eastern Europe to the company. Most recently, in late 2008 Lukoil acquired Turkey's Akpet which supplied several hundred service stations. Outside Europe, Lukoil has expanded into the US market by buying the Getty service station chain.

Maps: Russia

Like other Russian petrol retailers, Lukoil's preferred form of map has taken the format of an atlas, often printed on relatively low quality glossy paper. Although I have not seen all the maps shown here in person, it some cases Lukoil was just one of several sponsors, with BMW as a co-sponsor on three of the issues, and Nissan on the final one. Bosch also appears on two of the issues.

The exact date of these atlases is unknown, but the first three appear to be from around 2000 and the final example from around 2004. The first example covers Russia plus Belarus, Moldova, the Ukraine, and the three Baltic states at a variety of scales; it also includes a map of the Greater Moscow area. It was sold by Argo Press, using cartography from Euro Atlas GmbH and the sponsorship was assembled by Atlas-Media. The next three editions (one of Russia and two of Moscow) come from Allmaps which uses a similar business model of selling cover advertising to several firms; less information is known about the exact layout of the maps.

Maps: Eastern Europe

Despite its extensive operations, no Lukoil branded maps were known from any of its Eastern or SE European operations until after its acquisition of the Jet chains. In 2008 it started selling branded maps in Poland, carrying on the extensive programme of Jet.

Lukoil's Polish maps have so far all been produced by Jet's former cartographer, Daunpol, and consist of stock issues inside specially printed Lukoil covers. Although they have only been sold since late 2008, the use of stock maps mean that some titles, such as the Radom issue shown here, carry an earlier copyright date (2007 in this case). The Poland map is at the scale of 1:750,000 and the Radom street plan at 1:20,000.

No maps are known from other countries where Lukoil is active in Europe.