Rosneft CEO: we will drill `on our own`

In an exclusive interview, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin discusses the billion-barrel crude strike in the Kara sea region of Russia’s Arctic Ocean and how Russian sanctions are keeping Exxon Mobile from participating in the oil find

The most powerful man in Russia’s oil industry says US sanctions will not prevent the development of discoveries in the Arctic Ocean.

Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of state oil producer OAO Rosneft (ROSN) and a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin, spent two days traveling by plane, ship and helicopter last week to announce a billion-barrel crude strike in the iceberg-prone Kara Sea region of Russia’s Arctic Ocean.

"We will continue working no matter what,” Sechin said in an interview on board a polar research vessel as he prepared to unveil the find he named Victory. "We will plan the work for next season. As I said, now we’ve drilled only the first structure -- at Universitetskaya. There are more than 30.”

But Sechin has a problem. The first well, the costliest yet drilled in Russia, relied on money and expertise from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Rosneft’s partner in the Arctic and America’s largest oil company. Under US sanctions, imposed to punish Putin’s actions in Ukraine, Exxon must stop working in Russia’s offshore after the well is safely sealed.

By Charlotte Krol, source Bloomberg

The Telegraph