LUKoil to team up fields in Norway

Russia's largest private oil firm LUKoil will bid for a license to develop hydrocarbon deposits in Norway together with Norway's Statoil, LUKoil head Vagit Alekperov told reporters on Friday. "Norway holds tenders regularly and Statoil participates in them. I hope we can participate in the tenders together," Alekperov said. LUKoil and Statoil may also cooperate in developing oil fields in border regions of Russia, he said. LUKoil bid for a license to develop the Norwegian continental shelf in spring 2011. Media said Norway would consider LUKoil's bid for between three to six months. If the bid is approved, LUKoil will become the first foreign company operating on the Norwegian shelf. On December 2009, a consortium comprising LUKoil and Statoil won a tender to develop the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield in Iraq, whose recoverable reserves are estimated at 12.9 billion barrels of oil.