LUKoil's average daily oil production was 1.89 million barrels per day in the first half of 2006, 5.6% up from a year earlier. In January-June, the company produced 46.69 million metric tons of oil (1,880,420 bbl/d).
Oil output under international projects went up 43% after LUKoil acquired Nelson Resources Limited, a Canadian oil exploration and production company operating in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
Russia's ING Bank (Eurasia) is LUKoil's majority shareholder (63.3%) and U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips has a 16.8% stake in the crude producer.
The average production rate of oil wells in Russia during the reporting period rose to 11.23 metric tons per day, an increase of 2.1% year-on-year.
LUKoil produced 7.74 billion cubic meters of gas in the first half of the year, up 100% on last year's figure. Natural gas production expanded almost 300% to 5.14 billion cu m.
The rapid growth in natural gas production is attributable to the commissioning of the Far Eastern Nakhodka gas field, where the company produced 4.1 billion cu m of gas in the first half of 2006, LUKoil said.
