Statoil and Rosneft to Cooperate in Russia and Norway
Norwegian Statoil and Russian Rosneft have signed a cooperation agreement to search for gas and oil in the offshore areas of Russia and Norway.
The agreement was signed between Statoil CEO Helge Lund and President of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin were also in attendance.
The agreement will see the two companies set up joint ventures for the offshore frontier areas of the two countries to explore assets held in these areas. Under the terms of the agreement, Statoil will take a 33.33 per cent stake in the joint ventures with Rosneft to take the remaining stake.
Through the joint Russian venture, the companies will explore one licence in the Barents Sea, the Perseevsky licence and three licences in the Sakhalin area, the Kashevarovsky, Lisyansky and Magadan-1 licences.
Statoil says the Norwegian venture will have access to around 200 blocks on the Norwegian continental shelf, through four offshore licences covering an area of more than 100,000 square kilometres.
Statoil will finance the initial exploration of the four Norwegian licences to determine the commercial values of the assets.
The two companies have also agreed to undertake two technical studies on two more Russian assets, the North-Komsomolskoye field in Western Siberia and the Stavropol shale oil asset in the south-west of Russia.
"This cooperation agreement is an important milestone in Statoil’s exploration activity in Russia," Mr. Lund said.
"We are very pleased by entering into a long term collaborative position with Rosneft, one of the leading oil and gas companies in Russia, in large, prospective frontier areas in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk as well as joint international projects in Barents and North Seas. By building on both companies’ competence and experience, this agreement is a significant step further in the industrial development of the Northern areas."
Mr. Khudainatov welcomed the agreement, saying it proved the company's strength of strategy in developing offshore and hard-to-recover resources, while also strengthening the ties of Russia and Norway.
"Partnership between Rosneft and Statoil will contribute significantly to the development of economic relations between Russia and Norway, signifying a new era of unprecedented levels of trust," he said.
"The willingness of our overseas partners to develop Russian fields speaks both of the attractiveness and openness of the Russian market. Access for a Russian company to promising international projects will form the foundations for new relationships in the global oil and gas industry."