Lukoil mulls getting new resource sections in Kazakhstan
MOSCOW. May 28 (Interfax) - Russian oil major Lukoil is considering the possibility of acquiring new resource sections on Kazakh territory, company Vice President Leonid Fedun said during a conference call.
"We are now in negotiations with the government of Kazakhstan over the receipt of certain blocks located on their territory. But it will be a very long time," Fedun said.
Lukoil is considering by year-end signing a final production-sharing agreement for the Khvalynskoye deposit in the Caspian Sea, including with the Kazakh government, Fedun said.
"We also don't see any great delays with the Tsentralnaya structure," he said.
Russia and Kazakhstan have included in a plan for joint actions the timeframe for signing a Khvalynskoye deposit agreement before the end of this year. The two have agreed to issue a joint venture between KazMunayGas and Gazprom a short-term license to do additional prospecting.
The Khvalynskoye deposit was opened in 2002 and is located 260 kilometers from Astrakhan in waters from 25 to 30 meters deep. Balanced gas reserves in this deposit amount to 322 billion cubic meters, condensate reserves to 18.398 million tonnes, and geological oil reserves to 241.897 million tonnes.
Lukoil and KazMunayGas set up in 2005 a joint venture - Caspian Oil and Gas Company LLC - for developing the structure. In late October of 2009, KazMunayGas inked an agreement with the French companies Total and GDF Suez on the sale of 25% of its stake in the project. As a result, the distribution of stakes in the project is as follows: KazMunayGas 25%, Total and GDF Suez 25%, and Lukoil 50%.
Licensing to geologically prospect the Tsentralnaya structure was held by TsenterKaspneftegaz, owned on an equal basis by Lukoil and Gazprom. After prospecting work, TsenterKaspneftegaz opened a major deposit with reserves of 169.1 million tonnes of standard fuel. But that prospecting license expired, and the joint venture was unable to secure a production license due to the requirement of Russian law that only companies with government involvement exceeding 50% can develop the shelf.
Russia's subsurface resources agency Rosnedra has pointed out more than once that it would be difficult to change TsenterKaspneftegaz's stockholder structure, as it prescribed in an intergovernmental agreement for this section's development between Russia and Kazakhstan.
The Tsentralnaya structure lies in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea 180 km from Makhachkala.