Rosneft to kick off new project in Laptev Sea
© RIA Novosti. Iliya Pitalev

Rosneft to kick off new project in Laptev Sea

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed an order assigning the Khatangsky offshore license to the state oil company Rosneft. The company obtained the license area, located in the Khatanga Gulf in the Laptev Sea, for geological exploration, prospecting and the extraction of hydrocarbon resources. The corresponding document was published on the official website of the Russian government.

The Khatangsky license is for an area of ​​over 17,000 sq. km. Its estimated resources stand at 288.1 million metric tons of "oil in place" (total estimated reserve) and 82.8 million tons of recoverable oil; plus 228.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 20.8 million tons of condensate in balance reserves, and 13.6 million tons of recoverable reserves.

The license to develop the area was granted to Rosneft without any auction due to the company's five-plus years of experience in offshore projects in Russia, and due to its being over 50% indirectly owned by the government. Under Russian law, hydrocarbon-bearing areas of federal significance can be assigned for development without competition.