Lukoil plans to boost hydrocarbon-extraction 2%-3% per year
MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - Russian oil major Lukoil plans to grow the extraction of hydrocarbons by 2%-3% annually.
"Our immediate objective is to stabilize extraction in Russia in two or three years. Overall, our ten-year program presupposes increasing the extraction of hydrocarbons by 2% to 3% per year with the use of new technologies," company President Leonid Fedun said in a interview with the Kommersant business daily.
Lukoil's current oil-recovery factor is 19%, against a top Russian oil company recovery factor of 32%, Fedun noted. "But we are undertaking to increase [the oil recovery factor] to 40%, that is, by 9 billion barrels of additionally recoverable reserves," he said.
Fedun offered the view that there will be a real change to Russia's tax system in or about 2015. "By my calculations, extraction in traditional regions will by that time have begun to decrease and new projects will already be inadequate to compensate for that. Russia losing leadership positions in the level of oil-extraction will be a very serious challenge for the government by that time. Regulation now is performed with the aid of individual decisions concerning new regions or deposits, even though a new tax environment is so necessary," he said.
"What made the system that existed in the 90s good? Every company competed based on their technologies, intellectual resources, and desire to work. But now that mechanism is broken. They win that get somebody's attention, break through, secure access. And that is not right. There should be long-term programs for encouraging investment. Not just for new regions, but also for Western Siberia. There has to be a program for stimulating oil companies to operate with non-traditional hydrocarbon resources," Fedun said.