OVL hopes to ink pact for Rus fields during Medvedev's visit

ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is hoping to sign an agreement to take a stake in the Trebs and Titov in in the Arctic during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit next week.

OVL is in talks with Russia's OAO Bashneft, which had earlier this month won the rights to develop the Trebs and Titov fields in northwest Russia, an official said here.

"Efforts are being made to see that some kind of agreement is signed during Medvedev's visit," he said.

Bashneft, the oil producer controlled by Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov's AFK Sistema, had paid $600 million to get the developmental rights and is looking for partners for the multi billion dollar development of Trebs and Titov.

Other firms who may possibly be interested include OAO Rosneft and OAO Lukoil, Russia's biggest oil producers. The fields hold an estimated 1.58 billion barrels of oil reserves.

The official said OVL through its Russian unit had in September bid for the fields but Russia's subsoil agency Rosnedra disqualified it saying it lacked financial capability to develop the Arctic fields.

"Nord Imperial had on September21 submitted an application for qualification to bid for rights to develop the Trebs and Titov fields in Timan-Pechora, northwest Russia," he said.

"The bid clearly mentioned that Nord Imperial will have financial backing and support of its parents Imperial Energy and OVL," he said. "Clearly, the Federal Agency for Management of Mineral Resources chose to ignore financial support letters from OVL in its decision to disqualify Nord Imperial."

The Russian agency disqualified most of the six contenders, including Russian firms Lukoil and Gazpromneft and BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, for unspecified errors in their applications possibly to benefit Bashneft.

Bashneft was the only contender left in the auction.

The official said OVL was also interested in joining OAO Gazprom's Sakhalin-3 project, off the Russia's Pacific coast.

Trebs and Titov, Russia's largest undistributed fields, may hold more than 200 million tonnes of recoverable reserves. This is about half the reserves of Rosneft's Vankor, the country's largest new oil development.

Nord Imperial is part of Imperial Energy, which OVL had acquired in 2008 for $2.1 billion.

Besides, OVL has 20 per cent stake in Exxon Mobil-operated Sakhalin I project in Far East Russia.

Sakhalin-I has been producing oil for several years and reached peak production of 11.2 million tonnes in 2007. Its current output is 155,000 barrels per day (bpd), and is expected to touch 200,000 bpd in the next calendar year.