Russian oil firm Tatneft has said that it was considering a cooperation agreement with integrated oil giant Chevron to produce bitumen oil, according to news source RIA Novosti.
RIA Novosti quoted a senior official of Tatneft as saying that the oil company had agreed with Chevron to negotiate over the use of the latter’s technology to extract bitumen oil from Tatneft’s licensed deposits.
Indicating the potential of the deposits, the senior official said that two pairs of wells in Tatarstan were jointly yielding around 35-40 million metric tons of bitumen oil per day.
The Russian oil firm already has in place an agreement with Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major Shell to produce and refine high viscosity bitumen oil.
The agreement also allows for the acquisition of new hydrocarbon licenses in Tatarstan and other regions of Russia. Both the firms are reportedly seeking to establish a joint venture to implement the project, according to RIA Novosti.