Lukoil negotiating several offshore oil and gas projects with Congo, some already underway - minister
MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The Republic of Congo has signed a memorandum of intent with Lukoil on the joint development of several oil and gas fields, Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua told reporters.
He said this concerned between five and seven oil and gas fields that have already been discovered, mainly offshore.
Itoua said Lukoil was already involved in the development of several fields in Congo, and there was talk of increasing this. "They want to be operators, now they are partners [of other companies]. We would be happy to give them that opportunity," he said.
He also said that his ministry hoped the parties would be able to select one or two deposits within five or six months.
"This is not a question of providing expertise, but business," he said, adding that the parties were discussing large deposits.
"These are mainly fields that have been discovered, maybe some are already producing," the minister said.
"Possible partners have not yet been determined, since the negotiations have just begun, and they must determine what partners there can be," he said.
He said the national oil company, Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (SNPC) receives licenses by law, and both parties would work together, but the operator would play the key role. "We hope that Lukoil will be the operator and will work with SNPC and other companies," Itoua said.
"We hope to sign an agreement to start production. We usually sign a production sharing agreement," he said.
Lukoil is already participating in the development of the Marine XII license area in Congo, which is located on the country's continental shelf. The 571 square km Marine XII licensed block is located 20 km off the coast of the Republic of Congo and has water depth ranging from 20 to 90 meters. Five fields have been discovered within the block, with combined proven and probable (2P) reserves estimated at 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to an international, independent audit. The Nene and Litchendjili fields went into operation in 2015.
Russian oil company Lukoil bought a 25% stake in Marine XII from New Age M12 Holdings Limited in 2019 for $800 million. Eni is the operator of the project, with a stake of 65%, and the other 10% is owned by state company Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo.
Congo joined the ranks of LNG exporters in February this year with gas produced at Marine XII on the Tango floating LNG plant. Tango, which has capacity to liquefy about 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year, is moored in Congolese waters next to the Excalibur floating storage unit. Under the project, Congo LNG plans to increase the reserves of Marine XII and gradually expand gas liquefaction capacity to a plateau of about 4.5 bcm per year.