MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser held talks on Arctic and Black Sea shelf exploration at a meeting where Rosneft head Eduard Khudainatov was also present, the government said late on Wednesday.
The parties discussed Shell’s current projects in Russia, including Sakhalin-2 and Sakhalin-3 oil and gas projects in the country’s Far East, the prospects for expanding cooperation with Russian partners locally and abroad, the government said in a statement.
The talks come a week after rival BP’s plans for a tie-up with Rosneft on Arctic shelf development in Russia collapsed, following a dispute with BP’s Russian partners in TNK-BP.
Sechin, who oversees energy issues in the government, presided over the signing of a $16 billion deal between Rosneft and BP, which included joint work in the Arctic and a share swap. After the deal collapsed last week, Rosneft has to find another partner to provide it with the offshore technologies it lacks.
Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corp and Petrobras have approached Rosneft, according to media reports, while Vedomosti business daily quoted government sources and sources close to Rosneft as saying Rosneft was in talks only with Shell and did not plan negotiations with other companies in the near future.