Rosneft and BP have today signed final binding agreements to create a new joint venture, Yermak Neftegaz, to conduct exploration in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins in the Russian Federation.
Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and president of BP Russia David Campbell signed the agreement in St Petersburg.
The joint venture will focus on onshore exploration of two areas of mutual interest (AMIs) in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins covering a combined area of about 260,000 square kilometers.
Yermak Neftegaz will be owned 51 per cent by Rosneft and 49 per cent by BP. In the initial stage, the joint venture will carry out further appraisal work on the 2009 Rosneft-discovered Baikalovskiy field inside the Yenisey-Khatanga and on exploration of Zapadno-Yarudeiskoye, Kheiginskoye and Anomalnoye licenses in West Siberia.
Exploration activitie will include regional research, acquisition of seismic data and drilling of exploration wells, with the beginning of field works anticipated in the winter season of 2016 / 2017, said BP.
Sechin said: “After creation of the Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha joint venture we are now broadening the geography of our cooperation and creating a precedent which allows us to pursue cooperation in partnership with leading international companies to implement upstream projects at the largest Rosneft greenfield sites in West and East Siberia.”
Campbell added: “This agreement and creation of a new joint venture reinforces BP’s commitment to our strategic investment in Russia and our long term partnership with Rosneft. In the current low oil price environment we continue to look for opportunities for future growth.”
BP has budgeted $300 million in two phases as its contribution to the cost of the JV’s activities at the exploration stage.
Rosneft will contribute licenses and operational experience in West Siberia and Yenisey-Khatanga with initial drilling to be performed by Rosneft subsidiaries.