Monday 29 October 2018

The Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Mr. Kjell-Børge Freiberg and his Russian colleague, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Mr. Dmitry Kobylkin signed an agreement on mutual rights to seismic aquisition in the Barents Sea.

Both countries are in the process of mapping the resources on their respective side of the delimitation line in the Barents Sea. The new Agreement will entail a right for seismic vessels from both Parties to cross the delimitation line and use their seismic equipment within a distance of 5 kilometers on the continental shelf of the other Party.

This will secure both countries the possibility to aquire good quality seismic data up to, and along the delimitation line. Such data are important in case of a discovery of oil and gas extending across the delimitation line. According to the Delimitaion Agreement of 2010, such discoveries shall be subject to unitization.