ExxonMobil to invest up to $1 billion in Black Sea

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Top oil major ExxonMobil, which signed a deal to develop Black Sea oil to with Russia's top producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM), will invest up to $1 billion to explore the region, its chief executive said on Thursday.

The two will form a joint venture to explore and develop a deep-water project in the Black Sea.

Rosneft officials, speaking with ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson at a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said it would be split 50/50 at the exploration stage then 66/33 in favor of Rosneft at the development stage.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, also chairman of Rosneft, said he was aware of legal action taken by BP's local partners in another Russian company, TNK-BP (TNBP.MM) over new partnership between BP and Rosneft.

But he said he thought their differences could be ironed out.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; writing by Melissa Akin in Moscow; editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)