Russian Rosneft to conduct geological explorations in Kurdistan Region in 2019

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Russian oil giant Rosneft plans to conduct geological explorations in the Kurdistan Region in 2019, the company’s CEO said on Tuesday.

“The company continues to implement the project to develop fields in [the Kurdistan Region] in the Middle East, where a geological exploration program is scheduled for this year to ensure production in the future,” CEO Igor Sechin said at the annual general meeting of company shareholders, according to Russian government-owned TASS agency.

Sechin added that “in the first quarter of 2019, trial production was launched at the Bijeel field at block 11.”

In 2018, Rosneft, which is Russia’s largest oil company, revealed it was expecting the start of upstream projects by the end of the year. Its deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) outlined production sharing between the two sides and were signed in October 2017.

The company also signed other agreements with the KRG in mid-2018 to develop oil and gas infrastructure, including the design of a new gas pipeline, which was reported to have a capacity of up to 30 billion cubic meters per year once it began operation in 2020 and onward.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany