The FINANCIAL — According to RIA Novosti, the head of LUKoil, Russia's largest independent oil producer, proposed on October 27 establishing a consortium led by a state-owned company for offshore development projects.
"It would be useful to establish a consortium led by a state-run company to develop offshore fields, in particular in northern seas and on the continental shelf," Vagit Alekperov said.
LUKoil is involved in a project to develop an offshore field in the Caspian Sea, which has reserves of around 10 million metric tons of oil and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
At a meeting with the Russian president in January 2008, Alekperov said LUKoil would produce its first Caspian oil in 2009.
LUKoil Group said on its website on Monday its total hydrocarbon production available for sale reached 2.21 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter of 2008, up 4.1% year-on-year.
