Russian oil major Rosneft and U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil will establish two joint ventures to work on Russia's continental shelf under an agreement signed on Monday.
The two companies will establish joint venture firms to explore East Prinovozemelsky Blocks 1, 2 and 3 in the Kara Sea in the Russian Arctic and the Tuapse License Block in the Black Sea. Rosneft will hold 66.7 percent in both joint ventures.
Rosneft and Exxon Mobil signed a $3.2 billion agreement to work jointly at these projects last year.
The deal gives Exxon, which already works with Rosneft on the Sakhalin-1 offshore project in Russia's Far East, access to substantial oil reserves in Russia. Rosneft, which was in search of a partner to provide it with shelf technologies it lacks, will be now able to operate on Exxon Mobil's turf in the United States - in the Gulf of Mexico, in Texas and in Canada.
The two companies also signed an agreement to jointly develop technologies for the extraction of tight oil reserves in Western Siberia. Rosneft estimates oil reserves in its West Siberian deposits at 1.7 billion tons.
