Lukoil May Exit West Africa

Russia's Lukoil oil company may leave almost all of its projects in West Africa as it has made no large discoveries there, Leonid Fedun, the company's vice president, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"Many of these projects need more studies, but I am rather pessimistic. No decisions have been made, but we have not made any big commercial discoveries," he said on Wednesday.

Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer, has the biggest foreign exposure among Russian energy companies. It was once betting on West Africa as a potential source of its future production growth. Lukoil's biggest foreign project is West Qurna-2 in Iraq.

Reporting by Katya Golubkova