Barents Sea exploration: Norway’s Statoil and Rosneft have begun exploratory drilling operations in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea. The first exploration well Pingvin-1 is to be drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig to a total vertical depth of 1,516 meters, and the companies expect to have analysed the drilling results by the end of 2014. ITAR-TASS