Cabinet approved for $3.2 billion oil companies deal

The CCEA approved the acquisition of a 23.9 per cent stake in JSC Vankorneft and 29.9 per cent in LLC Taas-Yuryakh from Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft), Russia’s national oil company, by a consortium comprising Oil India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Bharat Petro Resources Ltd.

Details:

• The acquisition of stake in Vankorneft will provide 6.56 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE) and 29.9 per cent stake in Taas-Yuryakh will provide 0.5 MMTOE initially and 1.5 MMTOE by 2019.
• The consortium will pay $2,020 million for the Vankorneft stake and $1,242 million for the stake in Taas-Yuryakh.


• Earlier, in May, ONGC Videsh, ONGC’s overseas arm, completed the formalities to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vankorneft at a cost of $1.28 billion, which gave OVL 4.11 MMTOE.
• The acquisition will add 8.06 MMTOE to India’s overseas oil and gas assets.
• It will also provide an opportunity to Indian public sector oil and gas companies to absorb newer technologies with Rosneft and British Petroleum. BP acquired 20 per cent stake in Taas-Yuryakh from Rosneft last year.
• Vankorneft owns Vankor, which is Russia’s second-largest oil and gas field, in terms of output.