Rosneft, ExxonMobil to run joint projects in Russia, U.S.
SOCHI, Russia. Aug 30 (Interfax) - A strategic cooperation agreement signed between Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft and U.S.-based multinational corporation ExxonMobil on Tuesday covers five key areas of cooperation, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.
One of them is offshore geological prospecting in the Kara and Black seas and getting oil fields in the two seas ready for production, Sechin told reporters.
Another is setting up a center in St. Petersburg for research, personnel training and environmental and other tests for the Kara Sea project. "A very preliminary estimate of the spending on the center is 500 to 600 million dollars," Sechin said.
Projects in the United States and other countries are one more important point about the agreement. "I want to point out the exclusive character of these decisions for Russian companies in general - until now they have had no access to deposits in the U.S. that are in current use," Sechin said, adding the agreement covered oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas.
Personnel exchanges and training is the fourth area.
The fifth one is investment, "including joint work in stock markets that must be aimed at raising the capitalization of both companies," Sechin said.
