Eni and Rosneft to Cooperate on Russian Shelf

CEO of Eni Paolo Scaroni and President of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly develop projects on the Russian shelf.

The deal, which was signed yesterday in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will see the companies cooperate on both's licences in the Barents Sea and the Black Sea.

Through this agreement, Eni takes a 33.33 per cent stake in Rosneft's licences for the Fedynsky and Tsentralno-Barentsevsky fields in the Barents Sea, and in the Zapadno-Cernomorsky licence in the Black Sea, three licences expected to have reserves of 36 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Rosneft will also take an undefined participating interest in Eni's international projects. 

This 33.33 per cent stake sees Eni pledge to finance the exploration efforts necessary to assess the licence's commercial values, as well as providing technology and expertise to Rosneft in the exploration. Both companies will exchange staff where necessary as needed to develop the licences.

Speaking yesterday, Mr. Scaroni said the deal would further strengthen its increasing presence in Russia and form a large part of its operations for the next few years.

"Today's agreement is strategic for Eni as it will mark our exploration activities for many years," he saic.

"We have gained access to two vast and extremely promising areas in Russia, a great hydrocarbon producer. This success is the result of our long standing relationship with Russia, of the recent developments in west Siberia upstream and of our discoveries in the Norwegian Barents Sea, the first in the area."