Meeting in Basra on development of al-Qarna oilfield

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Basra Governor, Shaltagh Aboud al-Mayah, held talks on Monday with Russia’s giant oil Lukoil and its Norwegian ally stat oil on facilitating their work in the development of al-Qarna oilfield. “Talks were also centered on the possibility on depending on Iraqi workers in Basra, and especially in al-Qarna region,” al-Mayah told IraqiNews.com news agency. The governor asserted that other meetings with the two companies will be held to discuss their needs and plans for the city’s residents. Lukoil is Russia’s largest oil company and its largest producer of oil. In 2007, the company produced 96.645 million tons of oil; 1.953 million barrels per day. Its international upstream subsidiary is called Lukoil Overseas Holding. Headquartered in Moscow, Lukoil is the second largest public company (next to ExxonMobil) in terms of proven oil and gas reserves. In 2008, the company had 19.3 billion barrels of oil equaivalent per SPE standards. This accounts to some 1.3% of global oil reserves. Basra is 590 km south of Baghdad. SH (P)/SR 1