Rosneft and Statoil made an Arctic exploration deal in May 2012. It was the third deal Rosneft had signed in the previous month, after Arctic exploration agreements with Italy's Eni and US giant Exxon Mobil. In June 2014, Statoil announced it had completed a 12-month exploration program of its Castberg license project in the Arctic and less-than-expected reserves had been proved up. Production which had originally been planned to start in 2018 was temporarily shelved while the company and its partners reassessed the viability of the project and explored ways to reduce development costs.