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By Denis Pinchuk and Katya Golubkova
MOSCOW, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Russian state-controlled oilcompany Rosneft will not be able to resume drilling inthe Kara Sea this year after Western sanctions halted itscooperation with ExxonMobil, two company sources toldReuters on Friday.
"There will be no drilling in 2015. There is no platform andit is too late to get one. The project was initially created forExxon's platform," a Rosneft source said.
The second source confirmed this.
Asked for comment, Rosneft said: "In 2015, Rosneft willensure implementation of its licence obligations related togeological exploration in the Kara Sea."
Usually licences give companies a certain period of time tocomplete work. Rosneft did not give the timeframe offered by thelicence.
The second Rosneft source said the company planned to resumedrilling in 2016. "We will definitely resume drilling in 2016 onour own after finding a platform. The Arctic is our priority,"the source said.
Russia is the world's top oil producing nation, where outputhit a post-Soviet high of an average 10.58 million barrels perday (bpd) last year.
But the country needs to explore new areas such as theArctic or for shale oil because its resources in WesternSiberia, Russia's main oil producing region, are depleting.
Rosneft was drilling in the Kara Sea using the West Alphaplatform, owned by Seadrill subsidiary North Atlantic Drilling.
The rig returned to Norway in mid-October after completingthe well in the Kara Sea in late September. The rig is oncontract with Exxon until July 2016. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Katya Golubkova, additionalreporting by Balazs Koranyi in Oslo; editing by ElizabethPiper)
