The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

XOM, Rosneft ink major collaboration:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-exxon-rosneft-idUSBRE83F0Z020120416

The wide-ranging deal will grant Rosneft access to three projects in North America, where Exxon is developing hard-to-recover reserves in West Texas, the Canadian province of Alberta and in the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies will also seek to transfer know-how from those projects to develop Rosneft's own vast reserves of tight oil trapped in non-porous rocks like shale at three of its biggest fields in Western Siberia.

…The partners confirmed they would invest $3.2 billion initially to search for oil in the Arctic and Black Sea in a venture to be two-thirds owned by Rosneft and a third by Exxon. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, an architect of the deal, said investments in the three Arctic Kara Sea blocks could eventually run to $200-$300 billion, and in the Black Sea to as much as $50 billion.

Seismic work will begin in the Arctic blocks this year with a view to drilling a first exploration well in 2014. In the Black Sea, seismic survey work should be completed by mid-year and first exploration drilling in 2014-15, the firms said.