The pipeline deal comes just severa

The pipeline deal comes just several months after Russia’s leading private oil firm LUKOIL entered Congo’s offshore by buying 25 percent in the Marine XII license block. Marine XII, operated by ENI, comprises five discovered fields with a total reserve base of 1.3 BBbls which should reach a production plateau of 100kbpd, essentially tripling from the current output level of some 30kbpd. The $770 million investment on Marine XII will supplement LUKOIL’s earlier involvement in offshore Ghana, where it aims to start development drilling on the ultra-deepwater Pecan field (reserves estimated at 0.34 Bbbls, exploration well drilled to a depth of 4880 meters) which lies in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block. In addition to the above, LUKOIL and Russia’s state-owned geological exploration company Rosgeologia have signed separate agreements with Equatorial Guinea on future exploration activities in the country.