Rosneft and BP have signed today an agreement on strategic
cooperation in gas and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in respect to
the sale and purchase of natural gas in Europe. The documents were
signed at the XXI St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
The two companies agreed to develop integrated cooperation in gas and
aim to jointly implement gas projects in Russia and abroad focused on
gas exploration and production, LNG production, supply and marketing.
Rosneft and BP also reconfirmed their mutual interest in cooperation
in European gas marketing. According to the MoU, Rosneft and BP’s
wholly-owned subsidiary BP Gas Marketing Limited will enter into a
long-term sales and purchase agreement for the supply of natural gas
produced by Rosneft in order to ensure delivery of additional Russian
gas supplies to European markets starting from 2019. This MoU is another
milestone in the development of strategic cooperation between Rosneft
and BP.
"Rosneft already is the largest independent gas producer in Russia
and intends to further increase production levels in the coming years,”
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said. "Cooperation with BP would provide Rosneft
with both a new efficient gas monetization channel and the conditions
required for the development of a new resource base including hard to
recover gas reserves.”
"BP is pleased to expand its ongoing relationship with Rosneft
through this agreement,” president of BP Russia David Campbell added.
"Shifting to gas is one of the pillars of BP’s strategy. It is important
in order to meet the increasing demand for cleaner energy. Gas is a
growing proportion of BP’s portfolio and by the middle of the next
decade we expect around 60% of our production to be gas, compared with
around 50% today.”
The parties agree that Russian state support for an effective gas
supplies mechanism is key to the successful implementation of the MoU.