• India's PFC inks pact with Exim Bank
    Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:31 PM
    NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- India's Power Finance Corp. has signed an agreement with U.S. Exim Bank to receive an $800 million loan.
  • India Oil to shelve refinery proposal
    Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:09 PM
    NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- State-run Indian Oil Corp. is contemplating shelving its 15 million-ton greenfield refinery in southern Tamil Nadu state.
  • India won't cut duty on oil imports
    Published: May 15, 2008 at 9:40 PM
    NEW DELHI, May 15 (UPI) -- Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said there will be no reduction in the duty charged on imported oil, despite soaring energy prices.
» view more...
  • Fall River fights five-year battle against LNG facility
    Published: May 16, 2008 at 10:18 AM
    By JOHN C.K. DALY
    UPI International Correspondent
    WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- A five-year struggle continues between Fall River, Mass., residents and Weaver's Cove Energy LLC over a proposed LNG facility. While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project, the Coast Guard opposes it as an unacceptable safety risk.
  • UPI Energy Watch
    Published: May 15, 2008 at 12:19 PM
    OPEC cuts estimate of growth in world oil demand for 2008; The United Arab Emirates' crude oil output increased last month; Philippine government may cut taxes on oil and gas
  • Nigerian militants attack oil vessel
    Published: May 15, 2008 at 11:10 AM
    By CARMEN GENTILE
    UPI Energy Correspondent
    Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have called for a resolution to the conflict between rebels intent on crippling Nigeria's petroleum industry and government officials.
  • Mongolia, coal and inflation
    Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:56 PM
    By JOHN C.K. DALY
    UPI International Correspondent
    WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Rising fuel and food costs are hitting Mongolia hard, with foreign investors exploiting the situation to pressure the country to open up its economy. Given the country's political isolation, sandwiched between China and Russia, its two major trading partners, Ulaanbaatar is being held over the proverbial barrel in negotiations with its giant neighbors, leaving its population of 2.9 million nervously awaiting further aftershocks from rising inflation.
  • Congress blocks administration from stockpiling oil
    Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:28 PM
    By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW
    UPI Correspondent
    WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Faced with growing pressure to decrease gas prices, U.S. senators voted to stop stockpiling oil in the national reserve yesterday, but they rejected a plan to increase domestic production.
  • UPI Energy Watch
    Published: May 14, 2008 at 3:47 PM
    IEA: Developing nations cause high oil prices; New oil, gas fields will add to Indonesia supply; Australia says oil, gas tax breaks to go
» view more...

Lukoil, Putin press Iraq for oil deals


Published: March 25, 2008 at 3:52 PM
Print story
Email to a friend
Font size:
BAGHDAD, March 25 (UPI) -- Russian firm Lukoil is claiming partial victory in its struggle for a Saddam-era oil deal during a CEO visit to Iraq and lobbying by President Vladimir Putin.

The Iraqi government, however, hasn't signaled a reversal of opinion that the deal was canceled prior to Saddam's overthrow, thus no longer valid.

Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil company, is hoping to develop the West Qurna oil field under a 1997 deal. Russia claims it was frozen in 2002; Iraq says it was canceled due to non-performance.

Vagit Alekperov, Lukoil's chief executive officer, is in Iraq now, meeting with top government officials and those in the Oil Ministry. In a statement quoted by RIA Novosti and other media outlets, Lukoil said the company and Iraq will form a working group to bring the deal in line with the current Iraq government.

Chevron and Total, however, are in talks currently with the ministry for a two-year Technical Support Agreement for West Qurna. The firms would be paid to provide expertise, training and equipment to increase production by 100,000 barrels per day.

And while that wouldn't guarantee it wins an expected bidding round in coming years for longer-term investment, the ministry admits the more knowledge a company has of the field the better its bid will be.

Iraq is to offer an unspecified number of fields for development tenders later this year. West Qurna is reportedly not among them.

In a statement, Lukoil also said it "will take part in tenders for new projects to be announced by the Iraqi government after it has adopted a new law on oil."

Putin, in a letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also pressed for a Russian deal to rebuild an Iraq-Syria oil pipeline. Last month Russia wrote off $12 billion in Saddam-era debt with no direct strings attached. The debt relief had been used in the past as an offer for revising the West Qurna deal.

"The documents signed at the session of the Russian-Iraqi commission on trade, economic and scientific cooperation and the intergovernmental agreement on settling the Iraqi debt to Russia on credits provided earlier are, in our view, a good basis for intensification of partnership relations," Kommersant reports Putin's letter stated in part.

West Qurna contains up to 21 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Department's data arm, the Energy Information Administration. Iraq's total proven oil reserves are 115 billion barrels.

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
Print story
Order reprints
Email to a friend
Post comment
See Also:
» Next in Energy - Briefing: Iraq oil exports up, production down