Rosneft and its key strategic partner, the Italian Eni, did not find signs of an oil inflow from the results of drilling the first well in the West Black Sea area of ​​the Black Sea shelf. But Rosneft still hopes to open a deposit there.

Rosneft and Italian Eni, having drilled the first exploratory well in the Black Sea area in the Black Sea, did not find commercial hydrocarbon reserves, Reuters reported citing the source. Sources of Kommersant, who are familiar with the situation, also say that the companies have not confirmed the oil bearing capacity of this zone. The share of Rosneft in the project is 66.67%, the rest of Eni.

Now Rosneft wants to conduct geological data processing and "continue exploration work." One of the interlocutors of Kommersant clarifies that the site may contain gas manifestations. Officially, the Russian company now estimates the "prospective resources" of the site at 575 million tons of oil. From additional comments in Eni and "Rosneft" refused.

On cooperation in the Black and Barents Seas, Eni and Rosneft agreed before joining the Crimea and imposing sanctions against Russia in 2013. After the introduction of sanctions in 2014, most of the offshore JVs with foreign partners in the Russian Federation have been suspended - in particular, the US ExxonMobil announced the withdrawal from all projects, with which Rosneft in 2014 drilled a well in its section in the Kara Sea, Victory". However, c Eni Rosneft in May 2017 signed an agreement on expanding cooperation, which consolidated the agreement.

In mid-December 2017, Rosneft and Eni began drilling in the West-Black Sea area with the help of a semi-submerged exploration platform Scarabeo 9 (owned by the Italian Saipem). Then the head of the Russian company Igor Sechin said that the resource base of the site could amount to 600 million tons of oil and about 100 billion cubic meters of gas.

Directly working with Russian companies on the shelf is prohibited by US sanctions. In early 2018, due to the expansion of these sanctions (now prohibit participation in projects with the Russian Federation, where its share exceeds 33%), there was an incident: the head of the Eni board of directors, Emma Marchegaglia, unexpectedly announced that the company had to freeze its participation in the project, but then the statement was refuted. The interlocutors of Kommersant in the industry admit that, because of US pressure, the project in the Black Sea can finally comprehend the fate of Victory.