Oil production is flat to declining for companies like Rosneft and Lukoil.
Lukoil trades in low volume in the pink sheets, with huge spreads between bids and asks.
"They did not fulfill their contract, so it was canceled, " he says of Lukoil.
It holds less cash, though recent sales of LUKOIL shares have fattened the cash account.
Russia's government announced the sale of part of its 13.5% stake in Lukoil .
LUKoil and Gazprom are increasingly replacing American oil companies in the exploitation of the Orinoco Basin.
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"No one has offered us West Qurna-1, " LUKOIL Vice President Leonid Fedun told Reuters.
But so far Russian companies (except for Lukoil) have been notable by their absence.
Since 1997, Lukoil has had a 68.5% stake in a production sharing arrangement with the Iraqi government.
Lukoil holds large stakes in oil projects in Anaran, Moghan, Western Changuleh and other areas in Iran.
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But the status of the Lukoil deal to develop the West Qurna two oil field is still unclear.
Russia's Lukoil is fighting to regain a Saddam-era contract to develop the enormous West Qurna field in southern Iraq.
Lukoil has been trying to catch up with its smaller rival, Yukos, considered the country's most westernised oil company.
Some of Russia's biggest firms, such as gas monopoly Gazprom, and oil firm Lukoil, are listed on the exchange.
Whether by coincidence (as they claim) or by design, Lukoil and Yukos did not drop out until after that.
Lukoil won a contract to exploit the West Qurnah field, thought to hold 15 billion barrels oil, in the mid-1990s.
Investors tend to consider Russia an oil and gas play, but Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom are not listed on the NYSE.
But Lukoil hopes that once the restrictions are lifted the oil field will become a major part of its international operations.
PKN's smaller domestic rival, Grupa Lotos, to Lukoil, a Russian oil group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials will channel cash from the fund into state-controlled companies like Gazprom and Lukoil to make acquisitions.
Lukoil executives worry that US oil companies are desperate to play a role in the rebuilding of Iraq as a global oil giant.
Lukoil, a high-profile blue chip with gas stations in the U.S. and Turkey, is run by a chief executive who's friendly with Putin.
Russia's petro-giants, GAZPROM and LUKOIL, along with Venezuela's PDVSA, recently agreed to form what will be the largest oil consortium in the world.
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Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov is thought to have raised the issue in talks with Iraq's oil minister, Ibrahim Bah al-Ulyum, in Baghdad this week.
ConocoPhillips ( COP) is a major investor in Lukoil and the Russian company, which gives Lukoil a bit of a premium over its peers.
Last week, ConocoPhillips said it still plans to buy a further 2.4% of Lukoil and in time could even lift its holding to 20%.
Conoco is widely seen as the most advanced player, in light of last year's acquisition of a 10% stake in top Russian oil producer Lukoil.
Lukoil representatives - currently in Baghdad for talks - said they had won back the deal, while Iraqi officials indicated that there were still disagreements.
Watching closely is ConocoPhillips, which has a 20% stake in Lukoil.
Buying Slavneft had never made much sense anyway Lukoil would end up with unnecessary refining capacity and Yukos with more reserves than it can easily exploit.
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