January 19, 2017, 23:57 / Business

Lukoil and Rosneft will continue to work together

The companies signed new documents on the fields named after. Trebs and Titov Galina Starinskaya

In April 2011, Lukoil and Bashneft signed an agreement on joint development of the fields named after. Trebs and Titov. In October 2016, 60.16% of the voting shares of Bashneft were purchased by Rosneft / Bashneft

Rosneft . and Lukoil after an audit of field projects named after Trebs and Titov and the fields of the joint venture Vostok NAO reached a mutual understanding about their development, Alekperov said in an interview with Interfax: “As I understand it, the new shareholder of our joint project (Rosneft) had some doubts.” They conducted an audit, and we re-signed all agreements, all contracts for the sale of oil, for the development of projects <...> I am sure that both shareholders are interested in the dynamic development of these projects. Today we have no misunderstandings both in matters of project development and in matters of selling the products of the Trebs and Titov project.”

A Lukoil representative declined to comment further. A representative of Rosneft did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.

In April 2011, Lukoil and Bashneft signed an agreement on joint development of the fields named after. Trebs and Titov in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Their proven reserves are 240.2 million barrels. In the Bashneft-Polyus joint venture, Bashneft owns 74.9%, the rest belongs to Lukoil. The second joint venture, Vostok NAO, was created in May 2014. The companies contributed land in the NAO to it.

In October 2016, 60.16% of the voting shares of Bashneft were purchased by Rosneft. The new owner immediately had questions about the work of Bashneft, in particular about how the company purchases oil from Lukoil. Rosneft planned to audit the asset. At the end of October, she suggested that Lukoil terminate the contract for the supply of its oil to the Bashneft refinery and the return supply of petroleum products to its subsidiary, Litasco. The contract was terminated on November 1.

Another contract for the sale of Bashneft-Polyus oil was extended for a year, Interfax reported in early January, citing its sources. Thus, Bashneft-Polyus, as before, will sell 85% of the produced oil to the international trader Litasco, and sell 15% on the stock exchange. According to licensing conditions, 42% of the oil produced by Bashneft-Polyus must be processed at Russian refineries. Previously, oil from Lukoil was purchased for this, now 25.1% is from it (in accordance with Lukoil’s package in the joint venture), and the rest from Rosneft, the agency reported.

Lukoil does not intend to withdraw from the field development project named after. Trebs and Titov, the company has stated more than once. It is unlikely that Rosneft will insist on this, says Raiffeisenbank analyst Andrey Polishchuk. Lukoil owns the Varandey terminal (the only route for selling oil from the fields) and oil pipelines, so Rosneft would have to negotiate with Lukoil on the use of this infrastructure, he added.