OAO Rosneft may delay Arctic exploration wells as Russia's biggest oil company seeks alternatives to technology it has lost access to because of sanctions imposed on the country by the U.S. and Europe over the Ukraine conflict.
"We have to adapt and find alternative solutions," Artur Chilingarov, a member of Rosneft's board, said in an interview Thursday in Oslo, speaking through an interpretor. "This is difficult and cannot be done overnight." Asked whether the company might postpone wells planned as soon as next year in the Kara Sea to 2016 or 2017, he said: "It's possible."
Rosneft is studying offers from Asian companies seeking to contribute technology adapted to the Arctic and invest in the Russian producer's projects, Chilingarov said during a presentation at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.