Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer, said it has all but completed its multibillion-dollar joint purchase of India’s Essar Oil, expanding its access to the Asian nation’s burgeoning fuel market.
“On Wednesday the legal decision on Rosneft’s guaranteed entry in Essar was formalised,” Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said on Thursday at the Moscow-based company’s annual general meeting. “After some technical procedures are done, we’ll consider the deal closed.”
India’s billionaire Ruia brothers in October agreed to sell a 98 per cent stake in Essar Oil to Rosneft and a consortium of Trafigura Group and United Capital Partners for about $13 billion.
The deal — described by Essar as the biggest foreign direct investment in India — includes the 400,000-barrel-a-day Vadinar refinery, giving Rosneft an outlet in South Asia for its production as Opec and non-Opec countries vie for market share. Saudi Arabia has also bought stakes in refiners overseas.
“We expect to complete the transaction in the upcoming few weeks,” Manish Kedia, a spokesman for Essar Oil, said on Thursday by phone from Mumbai, declining to comment further.
As Russia’s No. 1 oil producer, Rosneft has borne the brunt of the output cuts agreed to by the government with Opec last year, and then extended in May.
 "The logo of Russian state oil company Rosneft is pictured behind a pipe at the Samotlor oil field outside the of Nizhnevartovsk, Russia")
