Lukoil gets one more project on shelf of Norway

Lukoil has got the third project on the Norwegian shelf: the company will have 20% in the consortium for geological exploration of a site in the area, which was the subject of a dispute between Moscow and Oslo until 2011. However, for a while, the work on the Norwegian shelf didn’t bring great success to Lukoil: according to the Kommersant’s information, the company discovered only a small gas field in one of the plots. But experts believe that sites in the former disputed area, given to Norway by Russia, look "very promising".

Lukoil has received a 20% stake in the project for geological exploration of the PL858 site (includes seven blocks) on the Norwegian shelf of the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) announces at the end of the 23rd licensing round. Under the terms of the license, Lukoil in partnership with Norwegian Det norske oljeselskap (the share is 40%, the project operator), Statoil and Petoro (each has 20%) must drill an exploration well with depth of 2.1 thousand meters at the site over the next three years. In the framework of the 23rd round, NPD auctioned sites in the "Spitsbergen square", which is the subject of the dispute between Russia and Norway, as well as in the border area, the disagreements on which the country settled in 2011. According to a source of the Kommersant in Lukoil, the company received the site in the area, on which the disputes have been resolved, but in the last round, the territories in the "Spitsbergen square" were also offered. The Governments of the countries didn’t impede their receiving, the Kommersant’s interlocutor noted.