Oil and gas developments in the Barents Sea are hot stuff in Norwegian-Russian relations these days. Both countries are stepping up seismic mapping in the formerly disputed Barents Sea waters and licenses are being round-handedly granted to powerful oil companies. Russia has given huge Barents licenses to Rosneft, which subsequently has teamed up with companies like Eni and Statoil. Earlier this week, the Norwegian government followed up on the Norwegian side of the border with license rights being granted to both Rosneft and Lukoil.
No wonder contacts between Moscow and Oslo are picking pace both between oil companies and on government level.
On Tuesday, Russian Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy paid a visit to Norway for the second time in one week. He first visited Kirkenes, northern Norway, in connection with the Barents Summit. Then, the minister came to Oslo to talk with his counterpart Ola Borten Moe, the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy.
According to the Russian ministry, the talks focused on “issues of bilateral cooperation within the field of sub-sea mineral extraction, the opening of offshore hydrocarbon fields in the Barents Sea, as well as issues of harmonization of activities”.
The minister says that the two countries now jointly are working with the “exploration, opening and production of hydrocarbon resources on the shelf of the Arctic Ocean and Barents Sea” as well as “geological, economical and value estimation of mineral resources”.
According to Donskoy, “economic stimulation measures can make Arctic projects economically viable despite harsh conditions, high geological risks and huge infrastructure investments.”
He adds that the energy partnership with Norway is being highly valued by Moscow. “We are going to make all efforts to further develop this cooperation”, he says in a press release.
