Gazprom plans to create a joint venture with Rosneft to develop the Arctic shelf in the East Siberian Sea, Prime agency reported on Tuesday, citing Deputy Chairman of the Board of the gas holding Alexander Medvedev.

“For licensed areas on the Arctic shelf in the East Siberian Sea, the first step has been to create a joint venture with Rosneft, without foreign partners,” Medvedev said, answering a question about which foreign partners Gazprom could attract to work on recently acquired shelf areas.

The government tentatively approved the issuance of licenses to Rosneft and Gazprom for 12 and 17 Arctic shelf areas, respectively, at a meeting in January. Rosneft received its sites and attracted foreign partners to their development . After this, the company submitted applications for additional areas, including those that were promised to Gazprom, motivating its request by the fact that Gazprom has no intention of independently developing a number of fields, planning to transfer the rights to them to Gazprom Neft.

In May, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced that areas located in the Kara Sea, as well as applications for which Gazprom submitted, would go to the gas company . At the same time, the ministry reported that the area in the East Siberian Sea will be divided between Rosneft and Gazprom, and the companies should negotiate on this matter.

Gazprom wants to create a joint venture with Rosneft on the shelf