Rosneft in deal to drill in the Arctic despite sanctions
Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, is about to drill for oil in the Arctic in tandem with a Norwegian company, despite the sanctions reaching for the Russian oil industry.
Statoil is the firm in question: a state-run Norwegian company that will help Rosneft to drill in the Bering Sea.
The site is inside the Artic circle, and represents just one such project in which Rosneft is involved.
Later in the summer the controversial firm will also begin work in the Russian Arctic alongside ExxonMobil. Rosneft has a 20 per cent stake in four fields, a share it won in last year's round of Norwegian licensing.
The sanctions imposed on Russian companies are wide reaching by not omnipotent. They restrict both future contracts and partnerships, but other operations are less controllable. The effects have been felt however, with Bloomberg reporting that not a single dollar, Swiss Franc or Euro was loaned to a Russian company in July.
Rosneft has been a fixture in the news recently; requesting $42bn in government help to fight sanctions and as a benefactor in the state-orchestrated breakup of rival company Yukos, which landed the Kremlin in $50bn of legal trouble.
Shares in the company remained fairly stagnant, down 0.14 per cent at close today, 18 August.