Lukoil quits Cote d’Ivoire due to the absence of commercial discoveries

​On the background of the oil price fall, the Russian oil companies start to close their foreign projects, beginning from the least perspective ones. So Lukoil has decided to fully shut down its activity at the deep water shelf of Cote d’Ivoire after a decade of its presence in the region. Until that the company left the project in Sierra Leone. According to Kommersant, geological exploration works have no serious results though Lukoil invested about $800 mln into the projects in Cote D’ Ivoire. According to analysts, quitting foreign projects, particularly shelf projects, that require significant investment was expected in the current situation.

Lukoil is the operator and holds geological exploration at 3 blocks of the Gulf of Guinea CI-205 (stake 63%), CI-401 (63.33%) and CI-504 (65%), however, in the process of works it hasn’t found commercial reserves, a source of Kommersant said. According to them, previously Lukoil left another 2 blocks - CI-101 and CI-524, and now it is in the process of quitting the rest 3 projects. The reasons are the absence of perspectives of further exploration due to the insufficient geological potential, a source of Kommersant says.