PARIS, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s largest private oil firm LUKoil plans to invest $4 billion in the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield in southern Iraq and intends to start oil production soon, LUKoil’s vice-president Andrei Kuzyayev said on Tuesday.
“We’ll invest $4 billion in West Qurna. We plan to produce the first oil at the end of this year and at the beginning of next year,” Kuzyayev said on the sidelines of the OECD forum.
LUKoil has taken all the necessary investment and financial decisions to develop the West Qurna-2 project, Kuzyayev added.
LUKoil signed a 20-year contract in 2010 to develop West Qurna-2 in Basra province, which has recoverable reserves of about 14 billion barrels.
LUKoil holds a 75 percent stake in the project while Iraqi state-owned North Oil Company has 25 percent.
LUKoil is seeking to expand internationally to boost its reserves and make up for declining output in Russia.
