LUKoil may start oil production in Iraq in 2014

Russia's largest private oil company LUKoil may start production at the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield in Iraq in early 2014, company head Vagit Alekperov said on Wednesday. "We will launch [production at the oilfield] at the end of 2013 or at the beginning of 2014," Alekperov said. The Russian company will invest about $4.5 billion in the project in the next three years, while overall volume of investment stands at $27 billion. "Oil production in Iraq will amount to 1.7 million barrels in 2017, while we will explore 600 wells [there]. Every well will give from five to six tons per day," he also said. In 2009, a consortium made up of LUKoil and Norway's Statoil won a tender to develop one of the world's largest oilfields, West Qurna-2, with recoverable reserves estimated at 12.9 billion barrels of oil. LUKoil planned to launch production at the field in 2013.