SOMO, the Iraqi state company for oil trade, and Lukoil, one of Russia's largest oil companies, have set up a joint venture to trade oil, Iraq Business News reports, citing the country’s Oil Ministry.
According to the news agency, Litasco, an international trader of Lukoil, will help to sell Iraqi oil and to train the staff of the Iraqi company in trading.
As a source familiar with the situation told Interfax news agency, the matter does not concern selling oil from the “Western Kurna-2” deposit, which is being developed by Lukoil, it concerns the sales of SOMO’s oil in commercial volumes. According to him, it’s pretty hard for SOMO to attain commercial volumes of the oil sales.
