29-08-08 Russian oil major LUKoil plans to use funds saved due to planned oil tax cuts to speed up the development of its Caspian Sea deposits, LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedun said.
LUKoil now plans to increase annual oil and gas output in the area to 50 mm tons of oil equivalent by 2020-2022, he said. Previously LUKoil expected to reach this output level by 2025-2030, Fedun said.

LUKoil expects to produce 30 mm tons of oil and 18 bn-20 bn cm of natural gas in the Caspian Sea by 2023, he said.
LUKoil's output at Caspian fields is projected to reach 12 mm tons of oil and 13 bn cm of gas by 2015, said Nikolai Nikolayev, chief executive of Nizhnevolzhskneft, a LUKoil subsidiary.

LUKoil's Korchagin field in the Caspian Sea will be the first to be launched in 2009, he said.
LUKoil has licenses for 6 discovered fields and 10 prospective blocks in the Caspian Sea.