LUKoil to invest $100 mn in Sierra Leone

Russian oil company Lukoil will invest some $100 million (76 million euros) on oil exploration in Sierra Leone, which is luring big investments to its west African coast after several oil finds. "We are going to invest $100 million in the first phase of an oil exploration venture in the first quarter of 2013," Lukoil vice-president Anatoli Katoshin told AFP after opening the company's office in the capital. "We are here and we are ready to work with zeal," he said. Ghana country manager Pavel Bogomolov said the company had built five wells so far in the Gulf of Guinea, "three in the Ivory Coast and two in Ghana and we are optimistic about the Sierra Leone drilling which will be 100 kilometres (62 miles) offshore." In February Sierra Leone announced its third offshore oil find when American-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) struck oil in its Jupiter-1 well. Sierra Leone remains one of the world's poorest countries after an 11-year civil war ended in 2002, however its diamond, gold, bauxite, titanium ore and magnetite iron-ore riches have attracted massive investments. In 2011, a report from Sierra Leone said the country stands to generate more than $100 million (70 million euros) annually once oil production gets underway, a significant boost to domestic revenues. The find also raises the stakes ahead of November elections, the third since the end of one of Africa's bloodiest wars.