Russia's No 2 oil major LUKOIL expects crude production to fall to 97-97.5 million tonnes in 2011, company CEO Vagit Alekperov said on Saturday. The country's biggest private oil producer saw an output of 98 million tonnes of oil in 2010.
"This year (output) will be smaller, but it will be larger next year thanks to new fields," Alekperov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. LUKOIL also expects to begin reaping yields from its project in Iraq from 2013, he added.
LUKOIL has said all of its future output growth will come from its foreign projects as Russian brownfields are quickly maturing and the country's taxation system does little to stimulate investment. But the independent producer signed a deal for joint exploration with rival No 1 producer Rosneft on Thursday that gave it access to the state-owned majors' licensing zones off of Russia's oil-rich Arctic Yamal peninsula.
The deal, which Alekperov hailed as allowing Lukoil access to "major" new hydrocarbon deposits, was the company's first offshore deal in Russia since launching the Korchagin oil field in the Caspian Sea last year. Meanwhile, Rosneft, has clinched a flurry of offshore partnerships with foreign majors, including BP, Chevron and Exxon.
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