Rosneft, ExxonMobil sign lucrative hydrocarbon deals
16 Feb 2013
Russian and US oil giants OAO Rosneft and ExxonMobil yesterday signed lucrative oil and gas deals extending their strategic joint venture agreement of 2011.
Under the deal signed in Russia in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rosneft will acquire a 25-per cent stake in the Point Thompson Alaska oil and natural gas field and in return, ExxonMobil gets the rights to explore 600,000 acres of land in the Russian Arctic.
Discovered in the 1960s, Point Thompson is a massive oil and gas field located in the Northern part of Alaska, which is estimated to hold 25 per cent of the regions known natural gas resources
Point Thompson field is estimated to hold around 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil worth around $100 billion plus.
ExxonMobil, which holds a 65-per cent stake in Point Thompson can now start developing the fields after it recently received government approval.
The agreement includes possible construction of a LNG facility in the Russian Far East. The companies said they would form a working group that will study the viability of an LNG project.