Oil giants Statoil and Rosneft have signed a joint venture to explore waters surrounding Russia.
The operators will assess opportunities in the Barents Sea west of Russia and the Sea of Okhotsk to the east as part of the deal.
Statoil said the two companies had also agreed to explore shale opportunities in the Samara region of Russia.
“The joint offshore exploration ventures are the cornerstone in the broader partnership between Statoil and Rosneft, said Helge Lund, Statoil chief executive
“The joint capabilities of the two companies will allow future exploration in under-explored areas and we look forward to working together on these projects.
“These opportunities are in line with Statoil’s strategy for high impact exploration through early access at scale in new basins.”
Statoil will have an equity share of 33.33% and Rosneft 66.67% in each of the operating companies established to explore the offshore licenses.
The Kashevarovsky, Lisyansky and Magadan-1 licenses are in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Sakhalin, while the Perseevsky licence is in the central Barents Sea.
The license requirements include drilling six exploration wells between 2016 and 2021.
Igor Sechin, chairman and president of Rosneft, said: “It is our strong conviction that signing today’s agreement for tight oil will allow us and our partner to efficiently develop the promising hard to recover reserves in the Samara region.”
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