INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Deal Scaled Back: Life continues to be tough for foreign companies in the dismantled Soviet Union.

American Ecosystems Inc., a Fullerton trading company, and Southern Counties Oil Co., a petroleum distributor in Orange, signed a joint venture agreement with private Russian entities to open five service stations in the Russian Federation by the summer of 1992. Due to a shortage of raw materials, however, the venture will be able to build only one station, in St. Petersburg, in 1992, said Tony Vanatik, president of American Ecosystems.

The delays are mostly due to paperwork problems rather than politics, he said. “It’s hard to get anything . . . (because) we’re building from scratch.” The venture hopes to open additional stations later.

American Ecosystems, formed by Russian immigrants, and its U.S. partners planned to invest $400,000 for each service station and install 20 automated pumps at each location.

Since Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin took over the reins of government, many foreign companies have lost their Soviet joint venture partners. The Orange firm and its U.S. partners were fortunate to keep their Russian partner, Ecosystem. Ecosystem created a new subsidiary, Russian Ecosystems, to manage the 50-50 joint venture.

American Ecosystems has other projects in the works in Russia. It is working with a San Francisco rock concert promoter and a Beverly Hills export-import company to organize an Moscow-Washington, D.C., auto race next summer.