LUKoil hopes to salvage Qurna deal with Iraq
10/08/2007 12:59 MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - LUKoil [RTS: LKOH] said it could still regain the right to develop Iraq's giant West Qurna-2 oil field once the country adopts a new oil law in September, a company spokesman said.
Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said in Moscow Thursday that licenses for the country's operational and suspended oil fields, including West Qurna-2, would go to the National Oil Company, which will then select foreign companies as contractors.
"A positive moment in yesterday's statement was that the oil law will be adopted in September," the LUKoil spokesman said. "The minister also said that contracts concluded under Saddam Hussein would be reviewed by the country's Supreme Council led by the prime minister."
Russia's largest independent crude producer, LUKoil operated the first phase of West Qurna and is looking to develop West Qurna-2 in southern Iraq. The deal for both phases was signed for 23 years in 1997 under Saddam Hussein but frozen in 2002.
The Iraqi oil minister said Thursday LUKoil would receive no concessions in tenders for Iraq's oil riches, but the company's vast experience would be a natural advantage.
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