The Tuapse field is a large offshore oil field located in the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
, roughly in size and between underwater, containing between of oil.
History
In August 2003,
Rosneft was awarded a license to explore the field, allowing the company to carry out surveys and small-scale exploratory drilling.
In February 2011, Rosneft and
ExxonMobil reached a preliminary agreement to develop the field; the agreement was officially announced on 30 August 2011 as part of a US$3.2 billion joint venture between the two companies that also included the development of the
East-Prinovozemelsky field
The East-Prinovozemelsky field (also referred as Vostochno-Prinovozemelskoye structure – meaning: East of Novaya Zemlya structure) is a gigantic undeveloped Arctic oil and gas field located in the South Kara basin of the continental shelf of Ru ...
in the Arctic
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. ...
.
Under the terms of the contract, Rosneft will own two-thirds of the joint venture, with Exxon controlling the remainder.
After Russia
annexed Crimea in 2014, the US
imposed sanctions that blocked the partnership.
ExxonMobil was later granted a limited waiver to maintain "administrative actions" in the joint venture, and in March 2017 applied to the US government for a full waiver that would allow it to resume drilling in partnership with Rosneft.
The request was denied in April, leaving ExxonMobil with little chance of beginning drilling before the joint venture agreement expired at the end of the year.
References
Black Sea energy
{{coord missing, Russia
Oil fields of Russia