Drilling in the Kara Sea will continue into next year, even if sanctions prevent US firm ExxonMobil from participating, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molotsov said Monday.
According to Molotsov, Russia can independently go ahead with the
necessary drilling in the Kara Sea in 2015 with the help of
drilling platforms owned by Russian companies. Russia’s largest
oil company, Rosneft has opened a large deposit of oil and gas in
the area.
“In total, we have about eight units of 100 percent
Russian-owned platforms,” the deputy energy minister said.
In the event Exxon leaves, work in the Arctic will continue,
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin has confirmed.
“Of course we’ll do it on our own and attract the necessary
technologies and different partners who don’t have limitations on
cooperation,” the Rosneft CEO said in an interview with
Bloomberg News.
On September 12, the US banned Western companies such as BP,
Shell, Exxon, and Total from working on Arctic, deep-sea, and
shale oil projects in Russia in an attempt to punish Moscow for
its perceived meddling in the Ukraine conflict.
At the same conference, Molotsov also said that the Russian
government is prepared to financially support energy companies
such as Rosneft that are feeling the squeeze of sanctions. Other
energy companies sanctioned are Gazprom (but only by the US),
Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Transneft and Surgutneftegaz.
Rosneft and Exxon launched a new drilling well,
Universitetskaya-1, in the Kara Sea on Saturday. However, Exxon
will have to wind down operations before the October 10 deadline
set by the US government. Exploration and development will have
to be continued by Rosneft without Exxon, or be put on hold until
sanctions are lifted.
Billion-barrel field
On Saturday, Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin, along with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, were present at the unveiling of the
northernmost oil well in the world, which is estimated to have
cost over $700 million. Oil output from the field may begin in
the next five to seven years, Sechin said.
Though no exact estimates are available to date, experts believe
it could hold up to 1 billion barrels of oil or crude equivalent,
bigger than offshore reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska or
Canada. There are also more than 300 billion cubic meters of
recoverable gas reserves.
Recoverable oil is just important to Rosneft as to ExxonMobil,
both of which are facing production shortages, and need to find
new sources to replace old and depleted ones. Russia and the US
are neck-and-neck in claiming to be the world’s biggest oil and
gas producer, a title Russia currently claims but America is
close to taking over.
The Kara Sea field will be named “Pobeda” or “Victory.”
“We will continue drilling here no matter what,” Sechin
told Bloomberg News.
Both Rosneft and Sechin are targets of the US and EU sanctions
against Russia.
Article source: http://rt.com/business/191460-russia-drill-exxon-arctic-sechin/
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