Rosneft and BP agree strategic cooperation in gas sector

Rosneft and BP have signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in gas and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 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 have 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. They 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 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.

‘Rosneft already is the largest independent gas producer in Russia and intends to further increase production levels in the coming years,’ said Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. ‘Cooperation with BP would provide Rosneft with both a new efficient gas monetisation channel and the conditions required for the development of a new resource base, including hard-to-recover gas reserves.’

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 would be key to the successful implementation of the MoU.