The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation is discussing with the Iraqi colleagues the expansion of the list of Russian oil and gas companies which may operate in Iraq, Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov said following a meeting in Moscow with his Iraqi counterpart Ihsan Abdel Jaber.
"Cooperation of our companies in Iraq is progressing successfully, and today at the talks we discussed expansion of cooperation, its strengthening and elimination of disagreements that exist today. We also discussed the participation of other companies, in addition to those already working there, which have shown interest in implementing projects in the oil and gas sphere," he said.
Among the major companies operating in Iraq, Shulginov named Lukoil and Gazprom Neft.
The March 3 meeting of Russian and Iraqi delegations was held in the "Oil" pavilion, which Lukoil rebuilt at VDNKh (All-Russian Exhibition Center).
Lukoil has been operating in Iraq since 2014, producing at the West Qurna-2 field. West Qurna-2, located in southern Iraq, is one of the largest in the world - its recoverable reserves are estimated at 14 billion barrels. In 2016, the company discovered the Eridu field in Iraq, the largest discovered in Iraq in the last 20 years. At present, the company is implementing the second stage of the field development, which envisages reaching a production level of 800 thousand bpd by 2025.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS