Russian Lukoil expands into Congo
Russian oil company Lukoil said it has acquired the rights to two offshore energy blocks in the Republic of Congo in partnership with Italian oil giant Eni.
The rights to the offshore blocks, known as Marine 24 and Marine 31, are now held by Lukoil with a 43% stake, Interfax said. Lukoil said Congo had accepted its request for the blockades, presented together with its partner Eni.
The firm's exact trading terms have not yet been agreed.
Lukoil is already present in the Republic of Congo with the Marine XII project, managed by Eni. “First of all, we are interested in projects where Lukoil can act as an operator. We discussed a number of opportunities of this kind today,” said Lukoil Vice President for Americas, Africa and the Middle East Ivan Romanovsky after a meeting with Congolese Hydrocarbons Minister Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua.
Lukoil bought a 25% stake in Marine XII in 2019 for $800 million. Eni, which holds a 65% stake in the project, has signed a contract with China's Wison Heavy Industry to build a floating natural gas liquefaction plant with a capacity of 2.4 million tonnes.
While Congo and Eni seem to welcome Lukoil with open arms, other projects that Lukoil has tried to pursue are blocked due to sanctions. In Ghana, Lukoil is trying to sell its stake in the development of the Peacan field, because banks are reluctant to finance it due to the risk of being involved in sanctions. Lukoil's partner Aker Energy was also nervous about pursuing the project with the privately owned Russian oil company.
Recently, Lukoil obtained the approval of Iraqi Thi-Qar Oil for the development of the Eridu field, after submitting a development plan in 2021.
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The article Russia's Lukoil expands into Congo comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-russa-lukoil-si-espande-in-congo/ on Sat, 18 Mar 2023 16:49:16 +0000.