The Russian energy giant Lukoil plans to quadruple its overseas oil production with major projects in Iraq and the Aral Sea region, Interfax reported Friday. The planned increase will take place over six years.
Lukoil’s top overseas project is a joint venture with Norway’s Statoil to develop a portion the massive West Qurna oil field, to the west of the Iraqi city Basra.
Initial production from West Qurna is scheduled for 2012 and full production should begin in 2017, company officials said.
The Russian corporation also is the lead member of a multi-national joint venture to develop oil and gas production in the Aral Sea region. The first test well was drilled in 2010.
Lukoil currently obtains approximately 90 per cent of its oil domestically, primarily from long-established fields in west Siberia, where production is slowly falling.
The corporation, which is Russia’s second-largest company, would obtain as much as 40 percent of its oil from outside the country by 2017, the report said.
