OAO Lukoil, Russia's largest privately controlled oil producer, said Thursday it had recently held talks with senior officials from the Iraqi Oil Ministry in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
It said the meeting discussed "progress of studies" that Lukoil is conducting on a number of Iraqi oil fields which include processing of seismic data, evaluation of petroleum potential, development of reservoir management plans and geological models.
It didn't name these fields, however. But it said that these studies are expected to be concluded at the end of 2008.
The Russian major signed in 2004 a five-year memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi Oil Ministry, under which the company would train Iraqi oil staff in its various establishments and Russian universities. Lukoil said that it trained some 400 staff in 2004-2006. The statement said that the company would train up to 160 Iraqis in 2008.
Lukoil hopes to revive a $4 billion Saddam Hussein-era deal to develop West Qurna oil fields in southern Iraq, with estimated reserves of over 14 billion barrels. Saddam Hussein severed the contract in 2002 because Lukoil, prevented by the then U.N. trade sanctions on Iraq, didn't start work on the project.