MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) -Russian oil company, Rosneft and American oil and gas corporation, ExxonMobil have discovered oil during drilling on the Universitetskaya-1 well in the Kara Sea, Rosneft said in a statement Saturday.
"Rosneft has successfully completed the drilling of the world's northernmost Arctic well Universitetskaya-1, which resulted in the discovery of oil in the licensed area of the East-Prinovozemelsky field in the Kara Sea. Drilling was carried out in record time - one and a half months, with complete compliance with all the technological and environmental requirements," Rosneft said in its statement.
"Preliminary assessment of the resource base only for this first opening has trapped 338 million cubic meters of gas and 100 million tons of oil , and this is only one of the structures in this field," the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, upon first discovering oil in the area.
In 2011, Rosneft signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to cooperate in the development of the East Prinovozemelsky field in the Arctic Kara Sea and the Tuapse field in the Black Sea. Under the terms of the contract, Rosneft owns two-thirds of the joint venture, while Exxon controls the remainder. The joint project between the companies is worth $3.2 billion.
In August 2013, Rosneft and ExxonMobil's joint venture company Karmorneftegaz began drilling at the Universitetskaya-1, Russia's northernmost well, using the West Alpha rig. The drilling was scheduled to finish in 70 days, but US sanctions gave American companies until September 26 to cease all operations with blacklisted Russian companies, including Rosneft.
