Russia’s largest independent crude producer LUKoil has acquired a 25 percent stake in a geological exploration, development and production project in the Gulf of Guinea off Sierra Leone in West Africa, LUKoil said in a statement on Wednesday.
LUKoil has bought the stake in the project to explore and develop the SL-4B-10 offshore block from Canada’s Talisman Energy, the project operator. The project’s other participants are Malaysia’s Petronas with a 25 percent stake and Britain’s Prontinal Ltd with 20 percent.
The SL-4B-10 offshore block covers an area of about 850 square miles (2,200 sq km) and is located at a depth of 300-9,000 feet (100 to 3,000 meters). It borders on the SL-05-11 deepwater offshore bloc where LUKoil is the exploration and development work operator.
LUKoil is seeking to expand internationally to boost its reserves and make up for declining output in Russia.