Lukoil has opened twofields in Saudi Arabia, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov told journalists on Thursday. “We have discovered two gas condensate fields at our block,” he said. The two fields have C1 + C2 reserves of 70 million tons of condensate and 300 billion cubic meters of gas, he said. The reserves indicate the fields could be profitable, he said. The company will need another two and a half years to carry out a full appraisal, he said. “After that, we'll start developing the project,” he said. Alekperov also said he recently met with the Saudi Arabian oil minister during a visit to Russia. “We hope that this project will be successful,” he said. In 2004, Alekperov and the Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi signed a contract for the exploration and development of gas fields and gas concentrate in an area known as Bloc A. The term of the agreement is 40 years. The exploratory period will be five years. In that time, LUKOIL will drill a minimum of nine exploratory wells, and will conduct seismic tests in an area covering 875,000 kilometers. Lukoil's expenditure on the exploration program will total $215 million.
