Russia's Lukoil OAO (LKOH.RS) has requested that Iraq clear mines from the supergiant West Qurna Phase 2 oil field in southern Iraq near the border with Iran, a senior Iraqi oil official said Thursday.
Russia
's
Lukoil OAO (LKOH.RS) has requested that
Iraq
clear
mines from the supergiant West Qurna Phase 2 oil field in southern
Iraq
near
the border with
Iran
, a
senior Iraqi oil official said Thursday.
Dhiaa Jaafar, chairman of Iraq's state-run South Oil Co. told Dow Jones
Newswires that Lukoil's request came during the first meeting held Sunday by
the joint management committee comprising specialists from Lukoil and the SOC.
"We haven't reached yet a final agreement on mine clearing issue,"
Jaafar said. However, he didn't say whether they would meet again to solve this
problem.
Iraqi authorities report there are more than 27 million pieces of unexploded
ordnance in
Iraq
from
the war with
Iran
in
the 1980s. The largest number of mine fields is placed near the border between
the two countries.
"West Qurna Phase 2 area isn't heavily polluted with mines, however,"
Jaafar said.
However, the two sides had agreed on other issues, such as carrying out a
survey on the field.
Lukoil, in partnership with
Norway
's
Statoil ASA (STO), won the right to develop the field, which has an estimated
oil reserves of nearly 13 billion barrels, during the country's second-largest
post-war licensing round in December.
A week ago another Russian company, OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), asked the Iraqi
authorities to clear mines from the Badra oil field deposit, also near the
border with
Iran
.
Gazprom said that mine-clearing at the deposit, which has estimated reserves of
2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, was required to secure the company's
operation on the site.
Gazprom, in partnership with Turkish Petroleum Corp., known as TPAO,
South
Korea
's Korea Gas Corp. (036460.SE)
and
Malaysia
's
Petronas, won the right to develop the field at the energy auction held in
December.
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