Statoil is one of Rosneft’s most important foreign partners, especially for oil exploration and developments in Arctic waters.
Speaking at the ONS conference in Stavanger this week, Helge Lund said the company intended to continue its partnership with Rosneft, despite Western sanctions limiting export of high-tech equipment for share oil, deep-water oil and Arctic offshore exploration and development.
“Our aim is for the cooperation to continue,” Lund said in response to questions about the sanctions. “We and our suppliers will have to apply for permits before we can do the job and that will lead to delays in some areas,” Lund said to reporters at a press conference at ONS, one of the world’s largest oil conference- and exhibitions.
The conference is well attended by several Russian oil companies, suppliers and trade delegation.
Norway’s Government announced on August 15th that it imposes the same sanctions as the EU in response to Russia’s backing for separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea earlier this year.
In 2012, Statoil signed a landmark agreement with Rosneft opening key offshore fields in Russia’s Arctic Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk for Statoil and giving Rosneft partner access to Statoil licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Statoil and Rosneft have teamed up in the northern part of the Barents Sea, in the formarly disputed maritime waters between Norway and Russia. In the western sector of the Barents Sea, the first test-drilling at a joint Statoil and Rosneft license started earlier in August.
Statoil says the company is working with Norwegian authorities to find ways to continue the cooperation. Export of equipment, however, will have to be applied for making sure it will not violate the sanctions.
