Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, has signed a new oil exploration joint venture (JV) deal with BP in Russia.

The JV, Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha LLC, will invest up to $300m in conducting oil exploration operations in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins of Russia, reported International Business Times. The exploration works are due to start next winter.

The source added that the deal, that was signed by Rosneft CEO, Igor Sechin, and BP Russia President, David Campbell, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), included exploration activities, regional research, acquisition of seismic data, and drilling of the exploration wells discovered over the combined area of almost 260,000 sq km that will be covered in the two Russian basins.

According to Reuters, Rosneft will have a 51% stake in the venture, while the remaining stake will be controlled by BP. The Russian state-owned company will be providing the operational licenses and will get the initial drilling activities done by its subsidiaries, while the British oil major will be investing in the exploration activities.