OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2013. The Iraqi ministry of oil signed with Lukoil on Thursday the 17th of January on the first amendment on the west Qurna development contract/ second phase, and the contract signature was attended by the Minister of oil Mr. Abdulkareem Liaybi & the head of Lukoil Mr. Vagid Alikperof. 

Mr. Deiaa Jaffar the Director General of the South Oil Company, Mr. Abdul Mahdi Al-Ameedi the Director General of the Contracts and Licensing Directorate & Mr. Hisham Al- Dabbagh the representative of the North Oil Company represented the oil ministry to sign the contract amendment with Mr. Alikperof whom represented Lukoil.

   Mr. Liaybi said that the share of Lukoil became 75% according to the contract amendment after the assignment of the Norwegian Stat Oil share which was 18, 75 to Lukoil, and it is worthy to mention that, the ministry of oil signed before, on the contract with the consortium of Lukoil & Stat Oil during the second licensing round.

   Mr. Liaybi said also that the mentioned amendments will be considered during the ministry's complete plans of west Qurna development. And added that these amendment rules were previously existed in the contract and the whole amendment process was done after gaining the council of ministers authorization.

   Mr. Assim Jihad the spokesman of the oil ministry said that the production peak of the company will be decreased from 1, 8 to 1, 2 million BPD, and the production peak period was extended from 13 to 19, 5 years as well as the duration of the contract which was extended from 20 to 25 years.

   Mr. Alikperof praised the big cooperation attitude of the oil ministry with the oil companies, especially Lukoil to solve the obstacles and said that his company is aiming to enforce the cooperation with Iraq in the other fields in addition to the power.