Iraq plans: for ConocoPhillips boss Jim Mulva
Mulva eyes West Qurna role
ConocoPhillips hopes to join Russia's Lukoil in developing Iraq's West Qurna oilfield, provided a number of security and legal hurdles can be overcome, company boss Jim Mulva said today.
Mulva said ConocoPhillips' joint operations with Lukoil in Iraq depend on employee safety, a long-delayed Iraqi national oil law and whether the new government will affirm a Lukoil contract to develop the field that was signed with Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We, along with Lukoil continue to study how to develop West Qurna field. We're very much supportive of the (Lukoil) contract and going in and doing West Qurna," Mulva told Reuters in an interview.
That suggests ConocoPhillips is aiming to take an active role in the development of a field that estimates show can produce about 800,000 barrels per day of crude, rather than participating solely through its 20% shareholding in Lukoil.
"President (Vladimir) Putin and the Russian government are very supportive of Lukoil to have that contract affirmed," said Mulva.
"The relationship with Lukoil continues to grow and develop," he added.
Mulva said the new Iraqi government needs to affirm the previous contract with Lukoil, which was cancelled by Saddam's regime months before he was toppled. Lukoil has threatened to sue any other contender for the $4 billion deal to develop West Qurna.
"It needs probably some additional changes and that will take some negotiation," Mulva said.
Mulva's concerns about safety keep all ConocoPhillips employees out of Iraq now and none of the company's 38,000 workers will go there until security improves. He did not offer a prediction of when that will occur.