BP may explore Arctic through TNK-BP venture with Rosneft
BP’S hopes of exploring the largely untapped waters of the Russian Arctic could be revived a year after a deal with Russia’s state-controlled oil company Rosneft collapsed.
TNK-BP, the firm’s 50-50 joint venture with Russian consortium AAR, said yesterday it had been approached by Rosneft to take part in projects to explore the region’s vast oil and gas reserves.
“I understand TNK-BP have responded confirming talks,” a spokesperson for BP said, adding that a proposal by TNK-BP had not yet been put forward to BP’s board.
The news comes after attempts last year by BP to tie up with Rosneft fell apart because of resistance from oligarch partners in TNK-BP, who claimed BP had breached its own shareholder agreement in their pursuit of the deal with Rosneft.
Rival oil major ExxonMobil eventually won the highly coveted deal to develop three vast untapped fields in the Arctic’s Kara Sea.
At a press conference on Friday to mark the latest partnership with Norway’s Statoil, Russia’s deputy leader Igor Sechin said TNK-BP was one of four private companies approached by Rosneft last week to work with it on another project on the Arctic shelf.
The others included Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz and Bashneft.
Rosneft president Eduard Khudainatov told reporters at the conference: “From two companies, TNK-BP and Lukoil, I received confirmation of the wish to work with us on these projects”.
Details of the deal are yet to be announced but an agreement is likely to see the forming of a joint venture where TNK-BP has a minority stake.
In a deal struck with Eni last month, the Italian oil firm was given a 33 per cent stake in a joint venture with Rosneft to develop two big blocks in the Barents Sea and the Black Sea.
Output from Russia’s Soviet-era oil provinces is declining and as the country faces high costs and technological challenges at remote field to retain its status as the world’s top crude oil producer.
President Vladimir Putin asked Rosneft last month to consider letting private companies access to fields that have until now been reserved for state energy groups.