Rosneft is selling 29% of the Taas-Yuryakh field to the little-known Skyland Petroleum. RBC found out that the last project of the founder of Skyland ended with his departure under pressure from shareholders dissatisfied with the company's results

Rosneft stand at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC)

Mysterious company

Last week, during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Rosneft announced the signing of “basic terms” of an agreement to create a “proposed joint venture” based on Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha with Skyland Petroleum Corporation . This agreement provides for the sale of Skyland Petroleum up to 29% in Taas - Yuryakh (now Rosneft has 100%) and the creation of a joint venture for the development of the Srednebotuobinskoye oil and gas condensate field (the main asset of Taas - Yuryakh , located in Yakutia, its reserves are estimated at 133 million tons of oil and 137 billion cubic meters of gas).

On the same day, Rosneft signed an agreement to sell another 20% of Taas-Yuryakh to British BP for $750 million. Based on this estimate, Skyland Petroleum will have to pay Rosneft $1.09 billion for 29% in this project.

Before the announcement of the deal with Rosneft, nothing was known about Skyland Petroleum in the oil and gas market. Its website states that it is "a new oil and gas exploration and production company founded in January 2015 by British company Vazon Energy and additional technical staff." Its financial partners are “based in East Asia,” which “provides a stable basis for the successful exploration and development of oil and gas properties around the world.” Skyland's core business is "actively acquiring projects in China's neighboring regions, especially in the former Soviet Union, South Asia and the Middle East." Rosneft President Igor Sechin called Skyland Petroleum “private Chinese investors” (quote from Rossiya-24). At the same time, he noted that partners of Rosneft and BP in the Taas-Yuryakh project could be not only investors from China, but also companies from other countries.

According to the Cayman Islands registry (it was not possible to find a company with this name in other jurisdictions), Skyland Petroleum was founded a little earlier than indicated on its website - in September 2014. Its ultimate owners are not disclosed. Vazon Energy, which formed Skyland Petroleum, was founded in 1997 and operates energy projects in the former Soviet Union and “other parts of the world,” Skyland says on its website. Vazon is owned and operated by geologist David Robson, who is “well known in oil, gas and energy circles globally.” Robson is also the executive chairman of the board of directors and president of Skyland Petroleum.

BP CEO Robert Dudley said at the St. Petersburg forum that the British company “will be happy to welcome new participants in this project,” and the choice of participants is up to Rosneft (quote from TASS ). And a representative of the Moscow office of BP explained to RBC that the British company is completely satisfied with its share in Taas-Yury, because it “best meets our interests and opens up new opportunities for cooperation with Rosneft.”

According to Skyland's website, Robson has been working in the oil and gas industry since 1990 and has been involved in projects in most regions of the former USSR, including Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus, as well as Central Asia. He was the founder of at least three companies - JKX Oil & Gas Plc and CanArgo Energy Corporation, operating in Georgia and Ukraine, and Tethys Petroleum, operating in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Georgia.

History of Tethys Petroleum

Tethys Petroleum is the last place of employment not only of Robson, but also of all other Skyland executives, including executive vice president Elizabeth Landles, chief operating officer Mark Sarsam, head of South and Central Asia and Russia Nazir Sharifi and vice president of external communications Mamuku Murdzhikneli.

Tethys Petroleum, created in 2003, in December 2012 managed to attract majors such as the French Total and the Chinese CNPC as partners for one of its projects in Tajikistan - the development of the giant Bokhtar oil and gas field (reserves are estimated at 8.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.22 trillion cubic meters of gas). But over time, the shareholders of Tethys, whose shares are traded on exchanges in Canada and Kazakhstan, became disillusioned with the actions of the founders led by Robson and at the end of 2014 achieved their resignation.

Tethys Petroleum investors, the largest of which was Pope Asset Management, were disappointed by the low share price, persistently high costs and weak operating results, Bill Wells, president of Pope Asset Management (at that time owned 17.3% of Tethys shares), told RBC. In early November 2014, Pope called an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to remove Robson, Landles and several other directors. The remaining shareholders supported this proposal, and the directors decided to resign. “It is with regret that I must acknowledge that in the best interests of the company I must resign from the board of directors of Tethys Petroleum Limited,” Robson said at the time.

Since then, Tethys' new management team has cut staffing and other administrative costs by about half, Wells says. According to the latest annual report of Tethys Petroleum, its revenue for 2014 decreased by about a quarter, to $27.4 million, losses increased 1.5 times, to $15.47 million, and administrative expenses decreased by only 6%, to $17.65 million. Just a month after the resignation of Robson and Landles, on December 1, 2014, the company announced a large-scale cost-cutting program, which included staff reductions and the closure of offices in Dubai, Washington and Toronto. The president of Pope Asset Management does not know whether Robson gave an undertaking not to work for competitors when leaving Tethys. “We are surprised that Robson and his team were able to secure funding for such a large project [Taas-Yuryakh] so quickly after leaving Tethys,” Wells added.

It was not possible to obtain comments from David Robson himself and the managers of Skyland and Tethys: the email address indicated on the Skyland website turned out to be non-working, Murdzhikneli and Sharifi did not respond to RBC’s request, and Tethys Vice President Sabin Rossi did the same.

Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told RBC that the Russian state-owned company knows the beneficiaries of Skyland Petroleum, but it will disclose them only if the agreement of intent results in a real deal. Yesterday, RBC was unable to get a comment from Rosneft: Leontiev’s phone was unavailable, and the company did not respond to a request.

Rosneft's new partner was fired by former employers