Rosneft Seeks Asian Partners for Arctic Oil, Gas

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday February 20, 2013

Igor Sechin, president of Russia's OAO Rosneft is traveling through Asia, seeking partnerships in China and Japan to help develop oil and gas resources in the Russian Arctic shelf, Russian news outlet RT reports.

Chinese companies including China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) could take part in five projects with a total output of about 1.7 billion tonnes of crude oil and 2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Rosneft recently won licences to develop 12 sections of the continental shelf, and it has already offered U.S.-based ExxonMobil a one-third share in seven of the sections, which are projected to produce 10 billion tonnes of oil and 7 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The company also has agreements with Eni S.p.A. of Italy and Statoil ASA of Norway to develop other shelf sections.

Gazprom OAO currently has a monopoly on the export of Russian gas, but the country's Ministry of Energy may allow others to participate in the market, potentially opening sales up to Rosneft and other firms in a few years.

Interfax Information Services Group reports the discussion with the Chinese companies centered on projects on the Barents Sea and Pechora Sea shelves, and it said Rosneft is also talking with Japanese companies about development on Magadan-2 and -3 and the Sea of Okhotsk shelf.

Rosneft also offered Japanese companies opportunities to develop six oil and gas sections in the Irkutsk region, according to Interfax.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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