BP and Rosneft form Siberian joint venture

BP and Russian resources behemoth Rosneft have created a new joint venture called Yermak Neftegaz to explore for oil and gas in seven license blocks in Siberia and nearby.

As part of its 49% ownership of the JV, BP will contribute $300m in two phases into the onshore exploration phase, which will probe two areas of interest in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins.

Rosneft's contribution will be five licenses plus its operational experience in West Siberia and Yenisey-Khatanga, while its subsidiaries will carry out the initial drilling.

The JV will drill the Bkl-21 well on the 2009 Rosneft-discovered Baikalovskiy field inside the Yenisey-Khatanga area and will begin seismic surveys of the Zapadno-Yarudeiskoye block in the West Siberian area.

The joint venture will also conduct geological exploration of the Kheiginskoye and Anomalnoye licenses in West Siberia.

Before the completion of the deal the JV partners won two further licenses in auction and now holds seven licenses for the use of subsurface resources.

Exploration activities in the two areas of mutual interest (AMIs) will include regional studies, acquisition of seismic data and drilling of exploration wells.

The joint venture is named after 'Yermak' Timofeyevich, a Cossack who started the Russian conquest of Siberia.