Lukoil Looking for Caspian Project Partner

Lukoil will present the results of its exploration wells drilled in the North Caspian Sea in Houston in June and will start looking for possible partners, according to a statement. Lukoil has found hydrocarbons in all six wells it made in the North Caspian, Vagit Alekperov, said. "We are looking at different ways of attracting partners to our block, and will possibly give them 10-20%, but in any case our company will be the operator," he said.

Lukoil plans to start commercial production gradually at its seven fields in the North Caspian, starting with extracting 320,438 barrels a day of oil and gas condensate at Khvalynsky and Korchagin fields in 2005-2006, he said.