Rosneft, Gazprom to Receive Four Arctic Fields
Ministry of the Environment sent to the government documents on the transfer of "Rosneft" and "Gazprom" licenses for the development of four more fields on the Arctic shelf, he said in an interview with RIA Novosti Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi also added that the decision to suspend the issuance of licenses for parts of the shelf is not accepted, and the Department continues to issue licenses for the development of the Arctic shelf in accordance with current legislation, according to RIA Novosti. "The proposal to suspend the issuing of licenses on the shelf was considered, but we continue to issue licenses under the current legislation.
Arctic Nations to Fight Climate Change Despite Russia Tensions
The eight Arctic Council nations pledged on Friday to do more to combat climate change that is shrinking the vast frigid region, with countries trying to put aside disputes over issues like Russia's intervention in Ukraine. Meeting in the Canadian town of Iqaluit, 300 km (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States pledged to work to address emissions of black carbon and methane. Both are seen as particularly harmful to the Arctic, whose sea ice this year was the smallest in winter since satellite records began in 1979, according to U.S. data. The region is warming at twice the rate of other parts of the globe…
Russia: Exxon Still Drilling in its Arctic
ExxonMobil is still drilling in the Russian Arctic, a Russian minister said on Friday, in move that if confirmed will anger Washington after the U.S. administration slapped sanctions on Moscow to suspend such operations by Western oil majors. The joint drilling project in the Kara Sea between Exxon and the Kremlin's state oil firm Rosneft has become one of the most watched projects by the oil industry after the West ratcheted up sanctions on Moscow for its incursion in Ukraine. Two previous waves of sanctions have failed to stop Exxon from sending an oil drilling rig from Norway to the Russian waters in August in the hope to confirm billions of barrels of new oil reserves.
Exxon, Rosneft May Halt Arctic Operations
Russia's natural resources minister said on Friday that it was highly likely that U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp and its Russian counterpart Rosneft had halted operations in the Kara Sea due to Western sanctions over Ukraine. "I have heard information about the possibility of such an event, the suspension of drilling, but I have not been officially informed of that ... The probability is high, it's most likely to have been stopped," Sergei Donskoi, the minister, told journalists. "Rosneft started to drill ahead of time ... Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Exxon had halted drilling at an offshore oil well in Russia's remote Arctic just a few days after the United States and European Union barred companies from helping Russia exploit Arctic, deep-water or shale-oil fields.
Repsol Makes Russia’s Largest Hydrocarbons Discovery in 2 yrs
Repsol has made two new discoveries in the Russia’s Karabashsky blocks, in the West-Siberian Ouriyinskoye field. The recoverable resources from the Gabi-1 and Gabi-3 wells are estimated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation at 240 million barrels of oil equivalent, a considerable addition to the resources Repsol currently holds in Russia. The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Sergei Donskoi said this find is the biggest made in Russia in the last two years. The use of modern seismic techniques to detect these potential resources has allowed Repsol to make these significant finds in a relatively unexplored area of West Siberia.
