“The parties agreed to implement the geological exploration program and to start pilot production as early as in 2018,” Rosneft announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The company hopes to see full field development by 2021 of the five blocks that contain an estimated 670 million barrels of oil reserves. Rosneft will hold an 80 percent share.
Details of the locations of the five blocks were not provided.
The KRG has not immediately issued a statement on the new contract.
The contract is part of an agreement that was finalized earlier this year in St. Petersburg.
Rosneft said the new agreements allow the company entry into “one of the most promising regions of the developing global power market” and will provide for further investments in the Kurdistan Region.
After signing another contract to extend a gas pipeline into Turkey just a week ahead of Kurdistan’s independence referendum, a Rosneft spokesperson said they were confident the referendum would not affect their business ventures.
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