A crude carrier chartered by LUKOIL’s international marketing and trading arm LITASCO arrived in southern Iraq's port of Basra to receive the first batch of oil as part of the recovery of LUKOIL's costs from phase one of the West Qurna-2 project. The vessel will spend several days in the port to load 1 million barrels of oil. It is the first crude carrier to transport buy-back oil that belongs to LUKOIL in accordance with the terms of the West Qurna-2 Service Contract.

Meanwhile, production at West Qurna-2 reached a level of 280,000 barrels per day. The project is continuing according to plan with LUKOIL successfully fulfilling its contractual obligations.

“The loading of this crude carrier provides further evidence of the reliable partnership between LUKOIL and the Iraqi side in developing the country's oil industry,” said Andrey Kuzyaev, vice president of LUKOIL and president of LUKOIL Overseas.