IOC, OIL, BPRL to buy Russian oil field for $1.3 billion

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corp, Oil India and Bharat Petroleum today signed an agreement to buy stakes in Russia's Taas-Yuriakh oil field in East Siberia for about USD 1.3 billion (about Rs 8,750 crore).

The three firms will equally split the 29.9 per cent they bought from Rosneft in Taas-Yuriah oilfield. They also signed Heads of Agreements for buying 23.9 per cent in Vankor oilfield in Siberia.

They will pay USD 1.28 billion for the stake in Taas-Yuriah oilfield which currently produces 20,000 barrels per day, officials said. The field has proven reserves of 137 million tons and output will reach 100,000 bpd in two years.

A separate MoU was also inked by ONGC Videsh Ltd with Rosneft taking additional 11 per cent in Vankor oil field in addition to 15 per cent it bought in September last year.

OVL, the overseas arm of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had on September 4 last year agreed to buy 15 per cent stake in Russia's second-biggest oil field of Vankor from Rosneft for USD 1.26 billion.

IOC, OIL and Bharat PetroResources Ltd (BPRL), a unit of BPCL, will after buying 29.9 per cent stake in Taas-Yuriakh also pay USD 180 million as their share of future capex.

They also signed MoU with Rosneft for possible stake in Vankor Cluster fields.

The agreements were signed on the second day of Rosneft boss Igor Sechin's two-day visit to India.

Rosneft had last year sold 20 per cent stake in Taas-Yuriah BP of UK for USD 750 million. The Russian firm will hold 50.1 per cent stake in the project after the deal.

The official said that originally OVL was negotiating to buy 25 per cent stake in Vankorneft, the developer of the Vankor oil and gas condensate field in Turukhansky district of Krasnoyak Territory in Russia.

Rosneft was however willing to give no more than 10 per cent. A 10 per cent stake would not have given OVL a position on board of Vankorneft and so, the Indian firm pressed hard and got a higher 15 per cent interest with right to nominate two board members.

Vankor has recoverable reserves of

Rosneft, Russia's national oil company, held 100 per cent

stake in Vankorneft. Acquisition by OVL is subject to relevant board, government and regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed by mid-2016, he said.

The 15 per cent stake buy in Vankor was the 4th-biggest acquisition by OVL. In 2013, it had paid USD 4.12 billion for a 16 per cent stake in Mozambique's offshore Rovuma Area 1, which holds as much as 75 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

In 2009, it had bought Russia-focussed Imperial Energy for USD 2.1 billion. Prior to that, it had in 2001 paid USD 1.7 billion for a 20 per cent interest in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field off Russia's far eastern coast.

Vankor is Rosneft's (and Russia's) second-largest field by production and accounts for 4 per cent of Russian output. It produces around 4,42,000 barrels of crude oil per day.2.5 billion barrels. The 15 per cent stake guarantees OVL 3.3 million tonnes a year of oil.