ONGC inks deal to buy extra 11% stake in Russian Vankor fields

State-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has signed definitive agreements with Russian state-run oil major Rosneft OAO to purchase additional 11 per cent stake in JSC Vankorneft.

"The daily production from the field is around 421,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil on an average and together with the earlier acquisition of 15 per cent, ONGC Videsh's share of daily oil production from Vankor will be about 110,000 bpd," ONGC said in a statement here.

"Vankor -- that operates the Vankor oil and gas fields in Siberia -- is Rosneft's second-largest field by production and accounts for 4 per cent of Russia's production," it said.

The definitive agreement was signed in Moscow on September 14 by ONGC's overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd's (OVL) Chief Executive Officer Narendra K. Verma and Chairman Igor Sechin of the Rosneft board of directors, ONGC said.

The deal is expected to receive approvals from the boards of the companies as well as the Indian and Russian governments by the end of 2016, it added.

Once the transaction is completed, OVL will have 26 per cent stake in JSC Vankorneft, along with the 15 per cent acquired in May 2016.

According to ONGC, the acquisition of this extra 11 per cent would add about 30 per cent to OVL's existing production, and about 2.2 million tonnes of oil and 1 billion cubic metres of gas annually, the statement said.

Following his Russia visit in June, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had announced here that a consortium of Indian oil companies led by ONGC Videsh was considering purchase of a part of the $11 billion stake that Russia was selling in Rosneft.

"OVL is the company heading the discussions now. Others may join later," he had said.

Russia plans to sell 19.5 per cent stake in Rosneft as part of a wider privatisation plan for 2016. In May, Rosneft completed the sale of 15 per cent stake in its Vankor oilfield OVL for $1.268 billion.

It has also signed an agreement in March to sell another 23.9 per cent in Vankor to a consortium of Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum for another $2 billion.

Rosneft had also signed the preliminary agreement to sell this additional 11 per cent stake in Vankor to OVL.

"When all these transactions close, Indian companies will have nearly 50 per cent stake in Vankor," Pradhan had said.

He also said India plans to invest in the Yamal mega project of Russian natural gas major Gazprom.

--IANS

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