MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state-owned oil producer Rosneft plans to bid for 30 Arctic offshore oil deposits, Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov said on Thursday.
Bogdanchikov told the 1st international economic forum in the Arctic city of Murmansk that the deposits, located in six Arctic seas, had estimated reserves of 18 billion metric tons of oil equivalent.
"This is the volume, which our company can cope with while working on the shelf," Bogdanchikov said.
At the same time, Bogdanchikov said he was against simplifying access for foreign companies to the Russian shelf.
"Licenses must be held by Russian companies and control must be exercised by Russian companies," Bogdanchikov said, adding that this approach was the easiest for foreign companies, as compared with other major hydrocarbon producing countries.
Rosneft became Russia's largest oil producer after acquiring most of the assets of bankrupt oil firm Yukos through liquidation auctions in 2007.
