Iraq may revise the West Qurna-2 contract with LUKoil

Iraq may revise the West Qurna-2 contract with Russian LUKoil company, Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum said.

"All contracts concluded by the Saddam government will be revised from the point of view of their legality and profitability for the Iraqi people," the Arab newspaper Al-Sharq al Awsat quoted the minister as saying.

"Iraq will apparently revise the West Qurna-2 contract with LUKoil," he said.

At the present time the minister is visiting Kuwait.

The 7.3 billion-dollar contract for developing one of Iraq's biggest West Qurna-2 oil deposit was signed by the Russian company in 1977. However, in 2002 Baghdad annulled it, asserting that LUKoil was allegedly not fulfilling its terms.

According to the information received by RIA Novosti from diplomatic sources, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum plans to visit Moscow in the near future and conduct negotiations with Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov.