China Oilfield Services (COSL) has secured a contract to drill two exploration wells in 2016 for Rosneft and Statoil’s joint ventures Magadanmorneftegaz and Lisyanskmorneftegaz.
According to Rosneft, the wells will be drilled in the Magadan-1 and Lisyansky areas of the Okhotsk Sea located south of the Arctic Circle.
The Magadan-1 well will be drilled 100km offshore, and the Lisyansky well will be around 90km offshore. Both are located in areas with water depths of less than 150m.
Based on a combined score of technical and economic parameters, the tender was won by COSL and it will offer its semi-submersible drilling rig Nanhai-9 for the drilling works.
Rosneft said participation of Asia-Pacific partners in the offshore operations is in line with development strategy for better exploration and production of hydrocarbons.
The use of ?OSL rig is expected to offer optimised logistics for the project.
Rosneft management board chairman Igor Sechin said: "The agreements reached open up new prospects for further cooperation between leaders of the oil and gas industry in Russia, Norway and China in the exploration of oil and gas resources."
In 2012, Rosneft and Statoil signed a cooperation agreement to explore areas of the shelf in Russia jointly and for Rosneft to join in the Norwegian shelf exploration.
Based on the agreement, the companies set-up the ventures, as well as completing a series of exploration operations, including 2D and 3D seismic and geotechnical surveys.
