Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov confirmed on Tuesday that the company refused to purchase the Velikoye field in the Astrakhan region.

“Yes,” TASS agency quotes Dyukov’s answer to the question whether the company really abandoned plans to purchase the Velikoye field.

The Velikoye field was discovered by geologists of the oil and gas company AFB in 2012 and is considered one of the most promising in the Astrakhan region. The field's reserves are estimated at 300 million tons of oil and 90 billion cubic meters of gas in categories C1+C2. The license to develop the field is held by the AFB company, which belongs to the co-owner of Vnukovo airport Vitaly Vantsev.

The impending deal between AFB and Gazprom Neft became known in the winter of 2014. On October 6, Forbes reported , citing a source close to the negotiations, that Gazprom Neft refused to acquire a controlling stake in the AFB company, which owns the license to develop the Velikoye field.

A source close to Gazprom Neft told Forbes that the field was assessed, but it cannot be ruled out that the field’s reserves are overestimated. According to statistics, the confirmability of reserves at fields in category C2 averages 40–50%. “That is, the Great River in reality may turn out to be half as large,” a source in the state commission for mineral reserves told the publication.

Gazprom Neft confirmed its refusal to purchase the Velikoye field