Lukoil wants to expand its presence in the world

Russian oil giant Lukoil is planning to make significant investments in the region of the Caspian Sea, in Iraq, in West Africa and Brazil, announced Tuesday to journalists the private conglomerate CEO Vagit Alekperov.

"Over the next 10 years, we plan to involved 325 billion rubles (8 billion euros) in projects on the continental shelf of the Caspian Sea, including 6 billion rubles (148 million euros) that are already invested," said Mr Alekperov.

He said Lukoil also wants to expand its presence in Africa and Latin America.

"We took new initiatives on the continental shelf of  Brazil and West Africa," said Mr Alekperov.

One of the richest deposits of oil in the world, Qurna Western-2 is located 100 km northeast of Basra. In 2009, the consortium including Lukoil and Norwegian Statoil won the tender for the exploitation of this oil field. It is planned to launch production in 2013. Initially, 400,000 barrels of crude per day should be produced, or 20 million tons per year. Subsequently, annual production could reach 95 million tonnes.