Rosneft has invited ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) to participate with it in the exploration of the frontier Magadan-2 and Magadan-3 blocks in the Okhotsk Sea offshore far eastern Russia.
The invitation follows by several months Rosneft’s agreement with Statoil to jointly explore four offshore blocks, three of them in the Okhotsk Sea and including the Magadan-1 block (OGJ Online, May 7, 2012).
Disclosure of the invitation to state-owned OVL came in a communication from M. Veerappa Moily, the Indian minister of petroleum and natural gas, to the Rayja Sabha, the upper house of Parliament.
Moily said an OVL team visited a Rosneft data room and is evaluating the blocks.
“Based on initial evaluation, blocks are indicated to be rank exploratory and involve high risk of investment,” he said.