|
A $400 billion investment for Rosneft
Undeterred by being banned from the United States as a consequence of the Ukraine crisis, Igor Sechin, the president of Russian oil company Rosneft, told Der Spiegel that his company plans to invest $400 billion in the Arctic by 2030, according to an article that appeared in the German magazine on Sept. 1. Rosneft thinks that there is as much oil in the Arctic as Saudi Arabia has in oil reserves, Sechin said.
On Aug. 9 Rosneft and ExxonMobil announced that a joint venture formed by the two companies had begun drilling the Universitetskaya-1 exploration well in the Kara Sea in the Russian Arctic using a Norwegian drilling rig, the West Alpha. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the signal for the start of drilling over a video link to the Kara Sea involving Sechin and Glenn Waller, head of ExxonMobil Russia, Rosneft said when announcing that the drilling operation was under way.
“The start of exploratory drilling in the Kara Sea is the most important event of the year for the global oil and gas industry,” Sechin said. As a result of this work we hope to discover a new Kara Sea oil-bearing province.”
Sanctions raise speculation There has been much speculation about the potential impact of U.S. and European sanctions against Russia on western companies operating in Russia. The Financial Times has reported that the United States, for example, has restricted Rosneft’s access to capital and imposed a ban on the transfer of oil exploration technologies into Russia.
BP owns a nearly 20 percent stake in Rosneft.
It appears that the formation of the joint venture between Rosneft and ExxonMobil predates the sanctions, the Financial Times said. There are, however, questions regarding whether the joint venture will be able to progress beyond the drilling of its first Kara Sea well, the paper reported.
Questioned by Der Spiegel about how sanctions might impact Rosneft’s investments, Sechin said that Rosneft makes sufficient profits to finance its own debt.
- Alan Bailey
| 