Lukoil expects National Oil Consortium to compensate expenses in Venezuela
SOCHI. Sept 18 (Interfax) - Lukoil expects the National Oil Consortium to compensate its expenditures in Venezuela in the event that the consortium is given control over the Junin-3 project, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov told journalists on Friday.
"We along with Gazprom and TNK-BP have confirmed that we would be prepared to hand over all our assets to the consortium if a joint venture is set up. But we have spent money there, carried out geological exploration and appraised reserves. We have accounted for these expenditures and we are prepared to present them to the consortium," he said.
The consortium must analyze the expenditures to appraise them, he said.
National Oil Consortium, which was set up in fall 2008, includes Rosneft , Surgutneftegas , Lukoil , Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP . Each company has a 20% stake in the consortium.
Along with PDVSA, the consortium will develop new blocks in Venezuela as well as projects that Russian companies were working on independently in the past, including Lukoil's Junin-3 block, TNK-BP's Ayacucho-2 block on the Orinoco delta and Gazprom's Ayacucho-3 block. This will enable the Russian-Venezuelan joint venture to become the largest oil producer in Venezuela.