Total Joins BP, Exxon in Rush for Offshore Oil Riches

Total is in talks with Rosneft about joint development of fields in the Barents Sea inside the Arctic Circle and in the Black Sea, Pierre Nerguararian, head of the Paris-based company's Russian office, told reporters Wednesday.
Total, Europe's third-largest oil producer, is joining bigger rivals ExxonMobil and BP in pursuing Russia's underwater riches as conventional deposits become harder to find. BP last month agreed to swap 5 percent of its shares for 9.5 percent of Rosneft as part of a drive to extract billions of barrels of crude from offshore Arctic deposits. Exxon, the biggest traded oil company, followed two weeks later with a $1 billion accord to explore the Black Sea with Rosneft. Russia's biggest oil producer also has a preliminary deal to explore a separate Black Sea block with Chevron Corp.
[Read more]
Source: THe Moscow Times