Russian oil company starts new work in Serbia

A Russian oil company said its division in Serbia has opened up a new reserve area with the goal of moving from drilling to development next year.

Gazprom Neft said it worked with its Serbian counterparts to open up the Northern Idos field with recoverable reserves of 6.8 barrels of oil equivalent.

"Development drilling at the Northern Idos field is expected to begin in 2017," the Russia oil company said.

Alexei Vashkevich, who heads an exploration division at Gazprom Neft, said Serbian reserves were complex, but drilling rates so far in Serbia have been successful at least 80 percent of the time. Gazprom Neft said its Serbian subsidiary was its most important international asset.

Russia is among the major oil producers that's not a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that agreed to cut output starting in January. Last week, Russian Oil Minister Alexander Novak said representatives from 12 oil companies in the country agreed to work together to monitor the terms of an agreement. All companies are ready to cut production, he said.

Russian oil company Lukoil said recently it's received no directives to cut production from its operations in Iraq, an OPEC member that lobbied for an exemption from the production deal. Gazprom Neft works in the Badra oil field in eastern Iraq, which holds around 3 billion barrels of oil in place.

Serbia last year warmed to Russian plans to pipe natural gas to Eastern European countries through Turkey.