The Russian-Norwegian agreement on delimitation of the former disputed area in the Barents Sea does not harm Russia’s interests – the amount of hydrocarbon resources on the Russian side of the newly established border is probably a lot larger than those Norway informed about last week. This is the conclusion of several Russian experts on oil and gas.
As BarentsObserver reported, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has been heavily criticized for “giving” Norway parts of the Russian shelf holding €30 billion worth of oil and gas. Norway’s Minister for Oil and Energy Ola Borten Moe last week received a study showing that about 1.9 billion b.o.e. could be exploited in the southeastern Barents Sea.
“We conducted seismic surveys of most of the area already in Soviet times and the information given by the Norwegian side is therefore no surprise to us”, says Professor Vasiliy Bogoyavlensky at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas to RIA Novosti.
According to Bogoyavlensky, Russia received access to enormous resources through the delimitation agreement. The largest part of the Fedinski Ridge, which has a potential that is three times higher than the Shtokman field, is located on the Russian side. “Of course we do not gain anything by ceding territory, but we are given the possibility to work in an area that used to be blocked, and we are improving relations to our neighbors.”
Significant potential
Also Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Denis Khramov believes that the Russian part of the Barents Sea is «no less promising» than the Norwegian part. Russia is just a little behind Norway in terms of calculating the existing resources, he explains. Only state companies can develop offshore fields in Russia, so the licenses to the Barents Sea were given to Rosneft after the signing of the agreement. The company is now giving the data collected in Soviet times a second interpretation Khramov says and adds that “based on the available information we already have an understanding that the potential there is significant”.
Cooperation with Norway would be profitable
Profesor Aleksander Lobusev at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas believes that the best way for Russia to exploit the potential in the former disputed area is to cooperate with Norway. “The most economically viable way will be to enter some sort of consortium with the Norwegian side and use their infrastructure to pump hydrocarbons into the European market. For example, to use the model of Rosneneft-Exxon and something similar with Statoil”.
Norway and Russia announced the delimitation deal for the disputed part of the Barents Sea in 2010 after the question had been unsolved for the last 40 years. The treaty stipulates how Norway and Russia should share and exploit cross-border reservoirs.
In the opened part of the Barents Sea and the northern Barents Sea, the expected figure for undiscovered resources is 960 million Sm3 o.e. This is equal to 37 per cent of the undiscovered resources on the Norwegian shelf.
