A delegation from Russia's Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS) will soon visit Iraq to discuss reactivating a multibillion-dollar exploration contract, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in an interview published Monday.
Lukoil - Russia's largest private oil company and its second-largest oil producer overall - has sought to return to the rich West Qurna 2 oil field in southern Iraq after being expelled from the country in 2002.
"We agreed with the managers of Lukoil that they would arrival in Baghdad soon to continue talks with our oil minister," Maliki told the daily newspaper Vremya Novostei, following his three-day visit to Moscow.
"The Iraqi government has ideas for a compromise which could satisfy this company and which at the same time would correspond to our policies," he said.
Maliki said it was "fully possible" that Lukoil could return to West Qurna 2, either alone or as a joint project with other companies.
Lukoil in 1997 signed the $3.4 billion contract to explore the oil field, but was expelled even before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq because of disagreements with the Saddam Hussein regime.