RusEnergy

26.05.2005 15:25 MSK MosNews - Vagit Alekperov, CEO of Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil, said on Wednesday, May 25, that his company hopes to sign a $1 billion production contract with Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela by the end of this year. "We're discussing a number of projects in the Orinoco River basin fields," Alekperov, quoted by Reuters, said at an investors' conference in New York. He said the company was also interested in Venezuelan offshore energy production. Fresh from a visit to state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela in Caracas, Alekperov said he expects a visit from PDVSA officials next month in Moscow. Lukoil wants to invest up to $1 billion in oil projects in Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter. The Russian oil major is pursuing an active expansion policy and is currently looking to widen its oil and gas development operations to the Caspian countries, North Africa, South America and the Middle East Gulf. "We have to use our chance to be present in these countries," Alekperov said about the rising status of the company, which has the world's second largest oil reserves for a private company. Lukoil's net profits rose 11 percent last year due to high oil prices and rising output. Excluding one-time gains in 2003, the company's net profits leaped by 72 percent. Lukoil's energy production last year was 1.83 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, which it hopes to expand to 2.8 million to 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2014.