Eni drops Black Sea project with Rosneft, other projs at question

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Italy’s Eni has withdrawn from a project with Russian oil major Rosneft on the Black Sea shelf and is discussing a temporary suspension of projects on the Barents Sea shelf, an employee of the Russian government administration told reporters Wednesday ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte.

“After the completion of the first ultra-deepwater exploratory well drilling at the Zapadno-Chernomorskaya license area on the Black Sea shelf in March 2018, Eni exercised its right to exit the project, which took place in March 2018. Regarding projects on the Barents Sea shelf, the terms of their temporary suspension are currently being discussed,” the spokesperson said.

In June 2013, Rosneft and Eni started implementing projects to develop the Zapadno-Chernomorskaya license area on the Black Sea shelf and the Fedynsky and Tsentralno-Barentsevsky blocks on the Barents Sea shelf. Eni had 33.33% stakes in the projects.

Business daily Kommersant reported in May that Rosneft and Eni suspended work of their joint ventures on the Russian shelf because of financing problem stemming from the U.S. sanctions. The two companies said later they remain partners in the joint ventures despite the U.S. sanctions.

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