Russian Oil Firm Opens 1st U.S. Gas Station

First there was vodka. Now the Russians are trying to sell another high-octane product in the U.S.: gasoline. AO Lukoil Holding, Russia’s largest oil company, opened a gas station this week in Altavista, Va., in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the first of 100 outlets planned for the United States this year and 2,000 more in coming years. Lukoil will run the station through Nexus Fuels Inc., an Irving, Texas-based gasoline retailer that is half-owned by Lukoil. Through Nexus, Lukoil has signed contracts to build and operate gas stations at retail outlets of Food Lion Inc., Shaw’s Supermarkets and others. Created in 1991 through an amalgamation of seven oil and gas producers in the Russian federation, Lukoil controls some of the world’s richest oil fields, with reserves of more than 14 billion barrels.