Lukoil hopes to drill ay West Qurna II before 2012

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Lukoil is seeking quick approvals of its tender offers as the Russian supermajor looks to get drilling at the West Qurna II bloc before the year is out. "We hope that by October, the Iraqi ministry will approve all our tender offers", the London-listed company's chief executive Vagit Alekperov, Lukoil's CEO, told Dow Jones on Friday that he hopes to see contracts approved "by October," according to a Dow Jones report.

The phase II bloc is estimated to hold almost 13 billion barrels of reserves, which Lukoil - in conjunction with Norway's Statoil - hopes to raise at a rate of 1.8 million barrels per day over the life of their 20-year service contract.

Lukoil owns a 56.25% interest in the field, while Iraqi state-owned North Oil Company owns a 25% stake and Norway's Statoil holds the remaining 18.75%.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- The news follows Daelim's award of the USD 920 million main hydrocracker package announced in July. South Korea's Daelim Industrial announced to the South Korean stock exchange on Friday that it has signed a USD 707 million deal to build a plant in Saudi Arabia, as part of the mommoth USD 20 billion Sadara joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical. In the regulatory filing, the EPC firm told the exchange that contract is for delivery in 2014, without giving further specifics of the contract. The news follows Daelim's award of the USD 920 million main hydrocracker package announced in July.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- BP CEO Bob Dudley has been wooing Abu Dhabi's government ahead of its decision on the renewal of its long-term oil production contract for Adco, the emirate's largest onhore oil concession, and used a press conference to affirm the supermajor's commitement to raise production at Iraq's Rumaila oil field.

"Abu Dhabi and the emirates have been important to BP for 70 years," Dudley told a press conference in the Emirate yesterday. "And we'd want to continue to cooperate with people, technology."

BP currently has a 9.5% interest in the 1.4 million barrels per day Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco), under a long-term contract that is due to come to an end in 2014. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has confirmed that a decision on who is to participate in the renewed contract will be made within the next few months, and has warned IOCs to expect changes from the current contracts, under which margins are tight but not much is expected from ADNOC's partners.

MRC

(Trend) -- Azerbaijan and Ukraine will establish a joint venture to examine the project of supplying Azerbaijani liquefied gas to Ukraine, Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev told media. The Ukrainian side proposes to consider supplying 2-5 billion cubic meters of gas. These volumes will be taken as the basis while preparing a feasibility study.

The adequacy of Azerbaijani reserves to ensure the country's commitments on gas supplies to Europe and Turkey should be also examined, Aliyev said. Minister said that the Ukrainian side said that it plans to start constructing a gas decompression terminal next year. It will initially dilute gas supplied from Qatar through the Bosporus. But, nevertheless, Ukraine seriously considers Azerbaijani liquefied gas supplies from the Georgian coast.

Supplies of liquefied Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine are possible within the project Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector (AGRI), which envisages supplies of liquefied natural gas from Azerbaijan through Georgia and the Black Sea to Romania. Ukraine may become another country - a potential customer, which can increase the effectiveness of the project, Aliyev said.

MRC

(RIA Novosti) -- Russian oil major Rosneft and U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil will begin seismic surveying of the East Prinovozemelsky Blocks on Russia's Arctic shelf in two years, Rosneft head Eduard Khudainatov said on Friday.

Rosneft and ExxonMobil recently signed a USD 3.2 bln agreement to explore East Prinovozemelsky 1, 2 and 3 in the Kara Sea and the Tuapse License Block in the Black Sea. Rosneft will hold 66.7 percent in both joint ventures.


The pact gives Exxon, which is already partnering with Rosneft on the Sakhalin-1 offshore project in Russia's Far East, access to substantial reserves in Russia, the world's top oil producer. Rosneft, which was looking for a partner to provide it with shelf technologies it lacks, will be now able to operate on ExxonMobil's turf in the United States - in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas, as well as in third countries.

MRC