"Lukoil" Russian Oil Company has stated about the sale of its "Azeri-Chirak-Gyunesh" oil project shares to the Itochu OI Japanese Company. The deal is $1 billion 150 million. "Lukoil" that had 10% of the project shares did not comment on the reasons of the step in any way. The Itochu OI company had over 3% of the project shares before. Commenting on the deal, the Azeri state oil company president Ilham Aliyev has stated that the purchase and sale of the project shares is the business of those companies, naming that action "a merely commercial deal".