Kara Sea drilling to start in 2015
Rosneft’s vice president Peter O`Brien says first stage of the planned Kara Sea exploration could start soon. The cooperation between BP and Rosneft could also be expanded to other areas in the Arctic.
Last Friday, BP and Rosneft announced their deal to cooperate on the development of three license blocks in the Kara Sea in the Russian Arctic.
Peter O’Brien says to RIA Novosti that oil extraction would be carried out in the first stage and gas could be produced later.
We plan to start drilling in 2016, O’Brien says.
The three blocks, named East Prinovozemelsk-1, 2 and 3, is within an area covering 125,000 square kilometres in the Kara Sea.
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Russian experts estimate recoverable oil and gas resources on the continental shelf at 100 billion tons of oil equivalents.
Rosneft believes the Kara Sea blocks may hold some 36 billion barrels of oil and some 10 trillion cubic meters of gas.
- It is an area which is going to be increasingly one of the key strategic components of Rosneft’s development and equity story for the next 10 to 20 years, O’Brien said, quoted by Bloomberg.
Rosneft and BP are also planning to expand their drilling cooperation to other Arctic areas in addition to the Kara Sea.
- We will look at all Arctic opportunities that will be available for us in Russia, O’Brien told Bloomberg stating that the two oil companies share an enthusiasm for a broader strategic alliance underpinned by the exchange of shares in each other’s companies, which will improve overall alignment as they proceed with both the Arctic joint-venture and potential other projects.
