WASHINGTON: Russia's vice premier is dropping hints he would welcome greater international cooperation to explore for oil in his country.
Vice Premier Igor Sechin was referring to a new partnership between Russian oil and gas company Rosneft and its US rival ExxonMobil.
The agreement with ExxonMobil is "quite special, but there will be others" Sechin told the Wall Street Journal during a visit to the United States this week.
In the interview published Saturday, Sechin described the Exxon-Rosneft agreement as "a long-term collaboration, which would be extended for decades - 30, 40 or 50 years."
The alliance could generate investments of $200 billion to $300 billion by the partner companies over several decades, Sechin told the Wall Street Journal.
On Monday, officials from the two companies signed documents in Moscow finalizing their strategic partnership for oil exploration in the Russian Arctic, Black Sea, the United States and Canada.
"Today Rosneft and ExxonMobil enter offshore projects of unprecedented scale in the Russian Arctic and Black Sea regions, which are home to the world's largest hydrocarbon resources base," said Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov, who signed the agreements with ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson.
Rosneft subsidiaries also will gain 30 percent stakes in ExxonMobil's projects in West Texas, the US Gulf of Mexico and Canada, the statement said.
ExxonMobil has pledged to invest $2.2 billion into the joint Arctic shelf project and be the first to tap into reserves that some scientists estimate at 100 billion tons of oil.
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