In 2015, Rosneft completed the entire corporate geological prospecting program in licensed sectors of the Arctic shelf.

"2D seismic prospecting projects covered 20,434 line kilometers of water areas in the Kara, Chukchi and Laptev seas. A comprehensive data system, developed by Rosneft experts together with the Arctic Research Center, was used for the first time during seismic prospecting. The system makes it possible to monitor the ice situation online and to update ice boundaries, as well as the specifics of drifting sea-ice formations," Rosneft press service reported.

This method makes it possible to extend project deadlines and to encompass actively drifting sea-ice formations located farther north. This year, the 3D seismic prospecting method covered 2,710 square kilometers in the Pechora and Okhotsk seas.

In 2015, Rosneft also finished building two commercial offshore wells in the Okhotsk Sea and completed engineering-geological prospecting operations in the Yuzhno-Russky licensed sector in the Pechora Sea.

Moreover, the company conducted geological field expeditions for studying comprehensive sediment layers in the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos. The results obtained will make it possible to determine possible hydrocarbon locations on the Barents and Kara sea shelf.