SINGAPORE — LUKoil Asia-Pacific will expand its trading business in that region, especially in naphtha and fuel oil, by first-half 2010, Litasco CEO Gati al-Jebouri said Wednesday.

“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 that region. Litasco is the trading arm of Russian oil major LUKoil.

LUKoil’s refineries have a throughput of 2.2 million barrels per day and exported about 6 million metric tons of fuel oil into Asia last year. The company, which just started exporting naphtha this year, has so far shipped out 120,000 metric tons of the petrochemical feedstock to Asia since January.

Although this makes up less than 5 percent of an estimated 3.2 million metric tons of naphtha that have streamed into Asia since January, it is still a breakthrough for LUKoil, traders said.