Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Russian oil company plans to drill in southern Iraq
Oil
(ITAR-TASS) LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov said his company is ready to begin an exploration and development project in Iraq's Western Qurna-2 field within 26 months should the Iraqi government approve LUKoil's proposals, ITAR-TASS reported on March 6. "I hope that the Iraqi government will take rationality of our proposals at their true value," Alekperov said. The oil field, considered Iraq's largest with reserves of around 6 billion tons, is located northwest of Al-Basrah. Meanwhile, Chinese oil officials will meet with Iraqi government representatives in Baghdad on March 6 to discuss Hussein-era contracts, Reuters reported on March 5. Before the 2003 Iraq war, China reached a $700 million deal with Saddam Hussein's government to develop the Al-Ahdab oil field, also located in southern Iraq.
COMMENT: LUKoil's involvement with Iraq is not new. In March 1997, the company, along with other Russian companies signed a $3.8-billion deal with Iraq's Ministry of Oil on the second stage of developing Western Qurna oil field. LUKOIL were to hold 52.% of the production-sharing contract. In December 2003, LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov met with the Chairman of the Temporary Governing Council of Iraq, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim to discuss development of the West Qurnah-2 oilfield. In March 2004 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and cooperation was signed by Alekperov and Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulyum, Minister of Oil of Iraq. During 2005 LUKoil provided humanitarian aid to the Ministry of Oil and internships for Iraqi oil experts in accordance with the MOU. By 2006 LUKoil had fulfilled the technical side of it's commitments according to the MOU. http://www.lukoil.com/ COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Basra, LUKoil, Qurna-2, Vagit Alekperov
