MOSCOW, May 30 (TASS ) - Russian oil major Lukoil is implementing a program for the repurchase of shares from the market at an accelerated pace, and may consider the parameters of the new repurchase after August, said Lukoil First vice-president Alexander Matytsyn in a teleconference with investors on Thursday.

“The buyback program has been completed by more than 90%. Compared to the original plans, we are moving at an accelerated pace,” he said.

Matytsyn also added that given the fact that all shareholders can take part in the offer, the amount of funds for the purchase of shares from the market as part of the offer can be significant. “Therefore, we plan to determine the parameters of the next buyback program and submit it to the board only after summing up the public offer in August of this year,” he said.

On September 3, 2018, Lukoil announced the launch of its program to buy back its shares and global depositary receipts in the open market for up to $3 bln. The program is to be completed on December 30, 2022. At the same time, Lukoil will be able to start a new buyback program, if the current one ends before the scheduled date. According to Alekperov, after the redemption of treasury shares his stake in the company would be about 30%, while the stockholding of Vice President Leonid Fedun would reach 10%.

On April 30, Lukoil purchased 2.24 bln rubles ($34.6 mln) and $50.95 mln worth of its shares and global depositary receipts (GDRs), respectively, on April 22-26, 2019 as part of a share buyback program. Particularly, Lukoil Securities Limited, a subsidiary of the oil producer, purchased 394,000 shares in the reporting period at the average price of 5,683.39 rubles ($88) per share, as well as 579,300 GDRs at the average price of $87.95 per share. Chief Executive Officer and biggest shareholder of the company Vagit Alekperov said earlier that Lukoil had acquired $2 bln worth of its own shares within the buyback program.

According to the results of Q1 2019, Lukoil increased the cost of repurchasing its own shares under the buyback program by 35% to 71.5 billion rubles, the company said earlier in a report. As part of this program in Q1 2019, 71.488 billion rubles were spent against 52.969 billion rubles in Q4 2018.