Putin: -Norwegians are very reliable partners
Meeting with LUKoil’s top boss this week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Norwegians are very reliable partners.
Last week, Norwegian oil major Statoil and Russia’s largest oil company LUKoil signed an joint agreement to develop the West Qurna 2 oil field in the Basra province in Iraq.
In a meeting on Monday this week, LUKoil’s President Vagit Alekperov discussed the project with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
At the meeting Putin said: - Your partners are very reliable too. We are working closely with the Norwegians on many projects, including the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea, which is another joint project involving a Russian company that offers good prospects for resolving issues in northern Europe. We are still negotiating a number of provisions, and this project gives us another impetus for settling current problems.
A transcript from the meeting is posted on the Prime Minister’s web-portal.
LUKoil is the largest Russian oil business group with annual turnover of over US$107 billion and net income of over US$9.1 billion. Statoil is Norway’s oil major and partner with French Total and Russia’s Gazprom in the Shtokman Development Group.
Read also: Zubkov:Shtokman will be postponed
As reported by BarentsObserver last week, the major new changes in the world gas market now seriously challenge prospects for the Shtokman developers.
An upcoming shareholders meeting to be hold on Friday this week might decide to further postpone a long announced final investment decision. At the meeting, the Shtokman partners are expected to agree on ways to face the new challenges, as reported by BarentsObserver.
