Lukoil investing around $2 bln in West Qurna 2 project in 2014
MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax) - Russian oil giant Lukoil is planning to invest around $2 billion in 2014 in the development of Iraq's West Qurna 2 project, Lukoil Overseas, the operator of Lukoil's international upstream projects, said in its corporate newspaper.
"By the end of this year, production volumes at West Qurna 2 should increase by more than 200% compared with the initial figure to 400,000 barrels of oil per day. The size of this year's investments is comparable to last year's - around $2 billion," the document quotes Lukoil Overseas Chief Andrei Kuzyaev as saying.
West Qurna-2 contains about 14 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, which makes it the second largest virgin oil field in the world. Lukoil holds 75% in the project and the Iraqi government-run company North Oil Company 25%. Lukoil has already invested $4 billion in the project.
The field's production plateau target, slated to be reached in 2017, is 1.2 million bpd (about 60 million tonnes year). Lukoil's contract is for 25 years.
Investments in the project are to cover ten years and total $26 billion.
