ONGC proposed to buy 10% of Vankorneft

The second Asian partner of Rosneft in the Vankor cluster of fields may be the Indian ONGC. According to the Indian The Economic Times, Rosneft sent an official proposal to the ONGC-owned company OVL to purchase a stake in Vankorneft CJSC on terms similar to those offered by the Chinese CNPC: 10% for $1 billion.

Indian ONGC may become Rosneft's second Asian partner in the Vankor cluster of fields
Photo: Efim Krepysh, Kommersant

Rosneft offered the Indian OVL (a subsidiary of ONGC engaged in international activities) 10% in the Vankor field in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. This was reported by the Indian newspaper The Economic Times, citing sources familiar with the progress of the negotiations. According to the publication, on August 5, Rosneft officially invited OVL to take part in the development of the Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye field, and in September, on the eve of the announcement of the sale of 10% in Vankor to the Chinese CNPC for $1 billion, the company made a similar offer to OVL. The Indian company has received a formal proposal, the newspaper clarifies, and OVL is currently conducting due diligence. Rosneft declined to comment. Kommersant sources close to the state-owned company say that there are no “specific negotiations” with ONGC.

Vankorneft is the second largest producing enterprise of Rosneft (21.4 million tons in 2013), initial recoverable reserves are 500 million tons of oil and condensate, 182 billion cubic meters. m of gas. Analysts valued the company at $7 billion.

At the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum in February 2014, Rosneft Vice President for Economics and Finance Svyatoslav Slavinsky reported that the company was going to invest about 3 trillion rubles in the development of the Vankor cluster of fields. “We are developing an oil and gas cluster based on the Vankor fields of Suzun, Tagul, Lodochnoye,” he said then. - Now we have a new asset - Taas-Yuryakh (Srednebotuobinskoye field), Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye. This cluster alone can produce 55 million tons of oil per year by 2025.”

Asian partners were invited to participate in the development of Vankor in September, when Vladimir Putin, at the ceremonial launch of the construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, announced that Rosneft would sell a stake in Vankorneft CJSC to China. “Mr. Sechin (President of Rosneft Igor Sechin - Kommersant) said that he has made you an offer to enter as a shareholder in one of our largest oil production enterprises in northern Russia,” he told Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhang Gaoli , adding that “there are no restrictions for our Chinese friends,” although Russia is “very careful about admitting foreign partners.”

ONGC in Russia is represented in the Sakhalin-1 consortium, where it owns 20%. Also in 2009, an Indian company bought Imperial Energy, operating in the Tomsk region.

Farit Ishmuhammetov, Kirill Melnikov

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