Uncertainty about a strategic alliance between Russian state-controlled oil firm Rosneft and Britain's BP, blocked by the British oil giant's partners in the TNK-BP joint venture, will not affect BP's investment projects in Russia, the chief economist of BP's Russia and CIS operations office said on Thursday.
"Our process is not yet over. So far, there have been no changes in our investment plans," chief economist Vladimir Drebentsov said.
BP and Rosneft agreed in mid-January to form a strategic alliance to explore the Arctic seabed in a $16 billion share swap deal but BP's partners in TNK-BP objected to the move, saying all of BP's new business opportunities in Russia and Ukraine must be pursued through the Russian-British joint oil venture. The JV's Russian billionaire shareholders won a preliminary order in a British court to suspend the deal.
BP and Rosneft are jointly developing deposits off Russia's Pacific Island of Sakhalin. The companies are implementing the Sakhalin-V project, which initially envisaged the exploration and development of the Vostochno-Shmidtovsky deposit with estimated recoverable reserves of 411 mln tons (3 bln barrels) and 255 bln cubic meters of gas, and the Kaigansky-Vasyukansky deposit whose recoverable oil reserves are estimated at 1.2 billion tons (8.6 bln barrels).
In 2009 the partners abandoned exploratory drilling at the Vostochno-Shmidtovsky field and returned the license to the government.
Drebentsov said BP's joint projects with Rosneft on Sakhalin were still an investment priority for the British oil giant in Russia, adding that the two companies were also successfully cooperating on the development of TNK-BP, a 50-50 joint venture between BP and a group of tycoons represented by the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium.
MOSCOW, March 31 (RIA Novosti)
