Updated 7:15 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – US sanctions imposed against Russia will not have any impact on the joint Sakhalin-1 project between ExxonMobil and Rosneft, the US company's spokesman, Alan Jeffers, told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“The Sakhalin-1 project is not impacted by US sanctions,” Jeffers said.
“Under the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between ExxonMobil and Rosneft, there are a total of 10 joint ventures involving the exploration and potential production from offshore Russia in the Black Sea, Arctic regions and onshore West Siberia,” Jeffers added.
Jeffers said the wind down of work activities of 9 of these 10 joint ventures was to be complete by the September 26 deadline.
“The Kara Sea project and the University-1 well was the subject of our application for a slightly extended compliance period because operations were at a critical stage and additional time was required to safely wind down activity, especially given the sensitive Arctic environment,” he said.
The Sakhalin-1 project develops three oil and gas fields off the northeastern coast of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East: Chayvo, Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi.
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. The joint oil drilling project between the companies is worth $3.2 billion.
In August 2013, Rosneft and ExxonMobil's joint venture company Karmorneftegaz began drilling at the University-1, Russia's northernmost well. The drilling was originally scheduled to finish in 70 days, before Washington gave US companies until September 26 to cease all operations with blacklisted Russian companies.
Last Saturday, Rosneft and ExxonMobil announced the discovery of oil reserves during drilling on the University-1 well. Rosneft's chief Igor Sechin said the companies had trapped an estimated 338 million cubic meters of gas and 100 million tons of oil, which is only a preliminary estimate for this one geological structure.
