Rosneft may participate in next Norway license round

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Rosneft (ROSN.MM) may participate in an upcoming license round for rights to develop fields in Norway's offshore zones in partnership with Statoil (STL.OL) under the terms of a joint exploration agreement signed by the two oil companies on Saturday, Rosneft president said.

"Rosneft has been offered the chance to participate with Statoil in these rounds," Eduard Khudainatov told a briefing after the signing.

Statoil will jointly explore one field in the Russian area of the Barents Sea, which could require up to $1 billion in investment in exploration if its resources were confirmed. Investment in each of three fields to be jointly explored in the Sea of Okhotsk could require $500 million.

Statoil is to pay all costs for exploration, in addition to some historic costs and possible bonuses to the Russian company.

Khudainatov said Rosneft remained open to co-operation with new partners in Russia's Arctic offshore zones and had invited Russian companies to such partnerships as well as foreign oil companies.

He said TNK-BP (TNBP.MM), BP's (BP.L) Russian joint venture, had responded with an expression of interest.

(Reporting by Melissa Akin; Editing by Andrey Ostroukh)