OIL-led consortium inks deal for 24% stake in Vankor oil field for $2bn

New Delhi: A consortium led by Oil India has signed an agreement to acquire 23.9 percent stake in Russia’s second biggest oil field of Vankor from Rosneft.

The deal is valued at $2 billion.

The stake acquired by OIL-led consortium is in addition to the 15 percent interest picked up by ONGC Videsh Ltd in the Vankor oilfield for $1.268 billion.

“Indian consortium, led by OIL, along with Indian Oil Corp and Bharat PetroResources Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), signed definitive agreement to acquire up to 23.9 percent shares from Rosneft Oil Co in JSC Vankorneft, a company organised under the law of Russian Federation which is the owner of Vankor and North Vankor field licenses,” OIL said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close by September 2016.

The 23.9 percent stake would be split in the ratio 33.5-33.5-33 between IOC, OIL and BRPL (IOC and OIL picking up 8 percent stake each while the remaining 7.8 percent stake would go to BRPL).

Rosneft holds 85 per cent shares in Vankor while ONGC Videsh Ltd (through its subsidiary) holds 15 per cent at present.

Vankor field, located in East Siberia, is Russia’s second largest field by production and accounts for around 4 percent of Russian production and currently producing about 422,000 barrels of oil per day.

“It is the largest of the fields, discovered and commissioned in Russia during the last 25 years and is located in the North of Eastern Siberia in Turukhansk district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 142 km away from Igarka town,” the statement said.

The recoverable resources of the Vankor field as of January 1 stood at 361 million tonnes of oil and condensate and 138 billion cubic meters of gas.

“With the closure of the Vankor deal, IOC’s equity oil portfolio will go up by 1.6 million tons per annum,” it said.

Further, Rosneft has agreed to sell another 11 percent stake in Vankor to OVL. Details of this deal are yet to be finalised.

The acquisitions have significant strategic importance to India, both in terms of augmenting energy security as well as enhancing its stature in the global political and economic arenas, the statement added.