Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, and Vagit Alekperov, President of Lukoil, today, at Gazprom's headquarters, signed a frame agreement on establishing the Centrkaspneftegaz joint venture.
The Russian Federation government authorized Centrkaspneftegaz to be in charge of the Centralnaya geological structure development in the Caspian Sea, jointly with NK KazMunaiGaz authorized for this purpose by the Kazakhstan government.
Gazprom and Lukoil will set up on a parity basis a joint venture to be registered in Moscow. The authorized capital of the joint venture will amount to RR 10 million.
"We are confident that by pooling the financial and production reserves, Lukoil and Gazprom will reach impressive results in the development of oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea", said Vagit Alekperov, President of Lukoil.
"The agreement we signed today is a consecutive step on the way to mutually beneficial cooperation between Gazprom and Lukoil on the oil and gas market. I am confident that our joint efforts could become an spectacular example of high efficient collaboration of Gazprom with Russian oil companies", Alexey Miller, the Chairman of Gazprom, is quoted as saying.
Reference:
TsentrKaspneftegaz is set up under the Protocol to the Agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan on demarcation of the bottom of the northern part of the Caspian sea. President of the Russian Federation and the President of Kazakhstan signed the Agreement in May, 2002. According to the Agreement, Russia and Kazakhstan should appoint authorized organizations to develop the Tsentralnaya geological structure; the authorized organizations are empowered to set up a joint venture.
In April 2002, the government of the Russian Federation entrusted Gazprom and NK Lukoil of setting up a joint venture that will become the Russia-authorized organization for the Tsentralnaya structure development.
The Tsentralnaya structure is located within the boarders of the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, 150 km to the East of Makhachkala.
The Tsentralnaya structure geological survey license has been granted to Lukoil. Full-scale geological and geophysical survey of the Caspian Sea started in 1995. Seismic survey allowed determining the most promising producing areas. Seismic survey of the Tsentralnaya structure was completed in 2001.
According to the specialists from Lukoil, recoverable oil and associated gas reserves of the Tsentralnaya structure account to 521.1 mln t and 97.1 bcm, respectively. The study confirmed high economic efficiency of the project.
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