Statoil Confirms Intention to Strengthen Ties with Rosneft
Despite the recent tightening of the American sanctions against Russia, Norway’s Statoil is looking for ways to strengthen ties with Rosneft, following in the footsteps of ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell.
Statoil confirmed the intention on Tuesday.
“We wish to develop our relationship with Rosneft further. We need to do so within the framework set by the sanctions,” Lars Christian Bacher, executive vice president, told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
The declaration is in line with previous declarations.
‘Statoil and Rosneft are actively implementing the strategic cooperation agreement signed in May 2012. This cooperation is an important step towards building Statoil’s strong position in Russia in the long term’ Statoil wrote in June.
The strategic partnership with Rosneft provides Statoil access to a 102 000 km2 area. Rosneft and Statoil will jointly explore the Perseevsky license in the Russian part of the Central Barents Sea and three licenses north of Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk – the Kashevarovsky, Lisyansky and Magadan-1.
Last week, 11 people and 15 entities have been added to the American Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals List. In this ways, The Obama administration is imposing additional sanctions to strengthen existing restrictions in connection to ‘Russian actions in Ukraine.’
LUNDIN PETROLEUM
A few hours later, on Wednesday, Lundin Petroleum announced the financial results for the second quarter of the year, reporting a 5% decrease in production and a net result going from + $59.9 million to - $171 million.
At the same time, Lundin Petroleum AB announced it has completed the drilling and logging of appraisal well 16/1-23 S on the Edvard Grieg field in the Norwegian North Sea.
“The Edvard Grieg southeast appraisal well has been successful. This well, together with last year’s appraisal well in the same area of the field, will in my opinion result in an increase to the Edvard Grieg reserves at the end of this year. The low incremental cost of developing such barrels will add value to the Edvard Grieg asset” Ashley Heppenstall, President and CEO of Lundin Petroleum, commented in a separate note.