Blomberg News reports that Statoil started a deal to drill two wells next year in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia’s far-east and will run test production at the North-Komsomolskoye heavy-oil field.
Talking to the newspaper, Lars Christian Bacher, executive vice president of the company’s international development and production confirmed they want to develop their relationship with Rosneft further within the framework set by the sanctions.
Norway’s state-controlled producer deepens cuts in spending and costs after oil prices fell by more than half in the last year, slowing the company’s long-term production growth compared to earlier targets, Bacher said on Tuesday.
The pilot project in Siberia and the two offshore wells are part of a wider framework agreement signed with Rosneft in 2012. While these projects aren’t affected by current sanctions, the companies can’t cooperate on drilling in the Perseevsky license area in the Russian Barents Sea, located next to similar exploration areas in Norway inside the Arctic circle, reports Blomberg.