Arctic: Rosneft wants to cooperate with the Chinese CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC

Russian Rosneft oil giant said Monday discussing possible cooperation with the Chinese CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC to extract with the
hydrocarbons in the Arctic region where it is already working with American ExxonMobil.

The president of the Russian group, Igor Setchine, raised the issue with leaders of these three companies during a visit to China, said Rosneft in a press release.

Different parties have decided to launch a series of working groups dealing with the prospects for cooperation on the Russian continental shelf, an inhospitable area of more than six million square kilometers stretching from the Norway to Alaska and which has vast resources of oil, it said.

This announcement comes less than a week after the signing in Moscow of a strengthening of the Covenant binding Rosneft to ExxonMobil on this region where exploration and production require huge investments, for a still uncertain outcome, according to some experts.

The licensing of the Arctic are currently reserved to the public gas group Gazprom and Rosneft. The tanker has been awarded 12 new licences, seven of them entering the agreement signed with the US giant.

Rosneft lack of resources, both financial and technological, to carry out only those projects, hence the need to find international partners.

During his visit, Igor Setchine also discussed with representatives of the Chinese Government of a possible increase in Russian oil exports to China, said Rosneft.