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Sechin: Rosneft Holds Consultations on Israel Offshore Gas Fields

Sechin: Rosneft Holds Consultations on Israel Offshore Gas Fields
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Τετ, 20 Ιουνίου 2012 - 17:41
Rosneft (ROSN.RS) has held consultations on possible participation in the development of Israel's offshore natural gas fields, but hasn't got any "effective offers," chief executive of the Russian oil and gas company Igor Sechin said Wednesday.
Rosneft (ROSN.RS) has held consultations on possible participation in the development of Israel 's offshore natural gas fields, but hasn't got any "effective offers," chief executive of the Russian oil and gas company Igor Sechin said Wednesday.

Answering a question at an annual shareholders' meeting he said the company had "held consultations with Israeli interested parties, including the energy ministry and the owners of the (offshore gas) licenses [and] was trying to coordinate work on the shelf," but there were no material offers of cooperation.

However, he added that the company "holds Israel 's (fields) on the radar."

Since large quantities of natural gas were first discovered in the Yam Tethys reserve in 1999, Israel has lessened its reliance on imported energy, and may even export gas once two giant fields, Tamar and Leviathan, are in production mode.

The Tamar field, which contains an estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of gas, is scheduled to begin production next year, and the Leviathan field, which contains an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, will begin production several years later.

Meanwhile, Sechin praised Rosneft's moves to start developing largely untapped oil and gas reserves on the Russian shelf in the Arctic . Rosneft has recently signed three major deals on the shelf development with ENI SpA (E), Statoil ASA (STL.OS), and ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM).

Mr. Sechin, then a deputy prime minister, actively participated in negotiating those deals, and said total cost of the development of the company's Arctic fields will be between $250 billion and $400 billion, hence "comparable to the cost of the space exploration".

He said the development of the Arctic fields will provide Russia with foreign technology, new jobs and plants.

Separately, he said the company, whose shares are already traded in London in the form of GDRs, is considering to offer its shares on the U.S. stock market too.

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