Rosneft, BP hit gas in north Russia
Rosneft announced on November 15 it had discovered a large gas and condensate discovery with its partner BP on Russia's north Taymyr peninsula.
It is the largest gas find to be made in the region, Rosneft said, estimating its size of 384bn m3. It was found by Yermak Neftegaz, a joint venture that Rosneft and BP set up in 2016, at the Verkhnekubinsky block.
Rosneft said the discovery had been named E. N. Zinicheva, after Russia's former minister of emergency situations, Yevgeny Zinichev, who died in September.
The company noted the close proximity of the discovery to its Vostok Oil project, which comprises a number of large-sized oil and gas fields that Rosneft hopes will one day produce 2mn barrels/day of oil and potentially as much as 50mn metric tons/year of LNG.
Rosneft has brought on board Trafigura, Vitol and Mercantile & Maritime as investors at Vostok Oil, with shares of 10%, 5% and 5% respectively. The company held a roadshow earlier this month to attract more partners.
BP has a number of upstream joint ventures with Rosneft across Russia, and also owns a 19.75% stake in the Russian oil company. But it has no direct involvement in Vostok Oil.