The Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) hopes to replace Russia’s Lukoil in the development of Iraq’s West Qurna Oil Field. Iraq's Oil Ministry broke a $3.8 billion contract last month, signed back in 1997 with a consortium of three Russian oil firms including Lukoil.
SPC will readily cooperate with other firms selected to develop the Qurna Field, SPC’s Director General Muhammad Saaed stated in an interview to an Iraqi daily.
The Lukoil contract was canceled “because they [the consortium] have not fulfilled their obligations under the contract,” Iraq's ambassador to Moscow Abbas Khalaf told AP. Lukoil spokesperson Alexander Vasilenko said the consortium had not violated the deal and called the move “petty blackmail,” reported Russia's Interfax news agency.
Lukoil was to have 52 percent of the production-sharing contract, Iran’s SCOP was to hold 25 percent and Zarubezhneft, known in the West as Nestro, and Mashinoimport with 11.25 percent each under the scrapped contract. Output during the contract's 23-year term was expected to total 600,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
Established in 1958, SPC is one of the companies affiliated to the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources. It is responsible to carry out all oil and gas exploration and development in Syria including feasibility studies, seismic surveys, production and marketing. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
