Bashneft is likely to establish a development company for the project and sell 25 percent pluss one of its shares to Lukoil. Two sources, one person close to Bashneft and one representative of the Nenets AO administration, confirm the information to newspaper Vedomosti.
BarentsObserver has previously reported about the possible inclusion of Lukoil in the project.
With the cooperation with Lukoil, Bashneft teams up with one of the biggest operators in the Timan-Pechora province. Lukoil manages several major fields in the region and has developed key infrastructure objects, among them the pipeline from the Yuzhno-Khilchuyu field and the port terminal of Varandey.
It was Naryanmarneftegaz, a joint venture of Lukoil and ConocoPhillips, which developed the Yuzhno-Khilchuyu and Varandey projects. Production started late 2008.
Bashneft is now likely to connect the Titov and Trebs fields to the pipeline stretching from Yuzhno-Khilchuyu to Varandey. That will significantly boost the volumes sent through the pipeline as well as through the Arctic port. It will eventually also lead to an increase in the volumes of oil shipped through the Barents Sea.
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As reported by BarentsObserver, Bashneft in February this year won the tender to the Titov and Trebs fields in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The field have respectively 63,4 and 78,9 million tons of oil resources.
