OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2008. During the visit, he met with Jellal Talabani, the President of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime-Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, the Foreign Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani, the Minister of Oil, and a number of other Iraqi leaders, reported the press-centre of LUKOIL.

The prospects of LUKOIL`s involvement in oil and gas projects in the Republic of Iraq, including the development of the West Qurna-2 field, were discussed.

Iraqi officials appreciated the work done by LUKOIL under the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Oil of Iraq and LUKOIL that was signed on March 10, 2004. 

Notably, LUKOIL has supplied the Ministry of Oil of Iraq with the construction equipment and ambulance vehicles. LUKOIL has been running for five years already the programs of internship for Iraqi specialists at the Company's facilities and of education for Iraqi students in Russian petroleum universities. Experts from LUKOIL are also performing a number of studies that include processing of seismic data, evaluation of oil and gas potential of reservoirs, drafting field development plans and producing geological models for several fields in Iraq.

Commenting on the results of his trip, Vagit Alekperov said: "Our dialogue with the leadership of Iraq was frank and efficient. We have made a significant step toward the understanding of the terms and conditions for the implementation of our project. Thus, in particular, we reached an agreement to establish a work group to update the terms for starting the implementation of the West Qurna-2 project in accordance with the legislation currently being drafted in Iraq. A decision was also made that LUKOIL Overseas (a 100%-owned subsidiary of LUKOIL) will take part in tenders for new projects which are going to be announced by the Iraqi government after the new Petroleum Law is adopted".

The Development and Production Contract for the Second Phase of the West Qurna-2 oil field was signed on March 21, 1997. LUKOIL’s share is 68%. The strategic partnership agreement between LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips calls for the transfer of a 17.5% share in the contract to the US company. The field is considered the largest in the world, its proven reserves are estimated at up to 6 billion barrels of oil.

As reported earlier, LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov visited Iraq with the delegation headed by Alexander Sultanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Mr. Sultanov has delivered a letter from Russia's President Vladimir Putin to the Iraqi Prime Minister.