OREANDA-NEWS. Rosneft President and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin and Chairman of the China National Petroleum Corporation Zhou Jiping have signed a Memorandum to expand cooperation in upstream projects in East Siberia in the presence of first vice premier of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Gaoli.

The Memorandum describes a joint venture for upstream developments in East Siberia with Rosneft holding 51% and CNPC – the remaining 49%.

Development of Srednebotuobinsk field will serve as foundation for the future JV. On October 14, 2013 Rosneft consolidated 100% of Taas-Yuriakh Neftegazodobycha which holds the license to develop this field.

Srednebotuobinsk is a world class field located close to the ESPO pipeline. The field’s reserves placed in the State Reserve Register include C1+C2 oil and gas condensate reserves of over 134 mln tonnes and over 155 bcm of gas. Oil production at the field started in October 2013. Gas reserves development is of special importance in the context of supplies via the regional pipeline system that has been approved by the Government.

The consolidation of Taas is part of the commitment Rosneft has to invest in the development of East Siberia and the Russian Far East through production, refining and distribution assets. Taas consolidation offers the creation of a new oil and gas province through access to a large number of smaller fields in the region. The crude is ideally placed to go to Rosneft refineries and customers located in the region and for export to the Far East.

Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha holds production licenses for the Central and Kurungsk blocks of the Srednebotuobinsk oil and gas condensate field. A pipeline was built from the field to the ESPO in the vicinity of the city of Lensk. The field is located 169 km away from the pipeline.