BP and Rosneft create joint venture

Rosneft and BP, have signed the final binding agreements to create a new joint venture, Yermak Neftegaz LLC at the XX St.Petersburg International Economic Forum. The agreements will allow the JV to conduct exploration in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins in the Russian Federation. The document was signed by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and President of BP Russia David Campbell.

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 km². Yermak Neftegaz will be owned 51% by Rosneft and 49% by BP. During the project’s initial stages, the joint venture will carry out further appraisal work on the 2009 Rosneft-discovered Baikalovskiy field inside the Yenisey-Khatanga AMI and on exploration of Zapadno-Yarudeiskoye, Kheiginskoye and Anomalnoye licenses in the West Siberian AMI.

Exploration activities in the two AMIs 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. The preliminary agreement relating to this project was signed at SPIEF in 2015.

Igor Sechin, Rosneft CEO, said after signing:

“These agreements serve as an example of full scale cooperation with BP, Rosneft’s strategic partner and largest minority shareholder. After creation of the Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha LLC 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.”

David Campbell, President BP Russia, said:

“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.”

Up to US$300 million has been committed by BP, in two phases as its contribution to the cost of the JV’s activities at the exploration stage. Rosneft’s contribution will be in the form of licenses and operational experience in West Siberia and Yenisey-Khatanga with initial drilling to be performed by Rosneft subsidiaries.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/17062016/bp-and-rosneft-create-joint-venture/