Saturday, Feb 04, 2012
(This story was originally published Thursday.)
By Hassan Hafidh
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
- Statoil to sell its stake in Iraq's West Qurna Phase-2 oil field to Lukoil
- Statoil holds 18.75% stake in the Iraqi field
- Iraqi Oil Ministry to approve the deal between Statoil and Lukoil
AMMAN (Dow Jones)--Norway's Statoil (STL.OS) is intending to sell its stake in Iraq's supergiant West Qurna phase-2 oil field in southern Iraq to Russia's Lukoil (LUKOY), a senior Iraqi oil ministry official told Dow Jones Newswires by phone from Baghdad Thursday.
Statoil and Lukoil were awarded a 20-year service contract for West Qurna Phase-2 in Iraq's second licensing round held in December 2009. The companies promised to get the southern field pumping at a rate of 1.8 million barrels a day for payment of $1.15 a barrel.
Statoil holds 18.75% stake in West Qurna Phase-2 project, with Lukoil holding 56.25% and Iraq's state oil company the remaining 25%.
Sabah Abdul Kadhim al-Saadi, deputy head of the oil ministry's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, said the ministry wouldn't reject a request from Statoil to sell its stake to Lukoil. "Lukoil is a qualified company through the oil ministry and it is the operator of West Qurna Phase-2."
He said, however, the ministry hasn't yet received a formal letter from Statoil to sell its stake to Lukoil. "The company could have asked the (Iraqi oil) minister verbally to allow it to sell its stake."
Statoil was tightlipped on the issue. "We are partners on the West Qurna-2 project with Lukoil," Statoil spokesman Baard Glad Pedersen told AFP, adding that Statoil doesn't comment on speculation about adjustments to its portfolio.
It is not clear yet what has motivated Statoil to look to leave West Qurna-2. "Certainly wider company issues, such as a focus on new discoveries in the North and Barents Seas and non-conventional resources in the U.S. could be part of the story," the Middle East Economic Survey, MEES, reported last month.
Iraq and Lukoil awarded last week a $998 million oil field service contract to South Korea's Samsung Engineering to build a first processing facility at the field with a production capacity of 400,000 barrels a day.
Lukoil awarded last August a contract to Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) to drill 23 new wells in the field.
West-Qurna-2 is a green field that has yet to produce any oil.
-By Hassan Hafidh; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-02-12 0718GMT
