IOC-led consortium to buy 23.9% stake in Vankor field

The Dollar Business Bureau 

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)-led consortium of oil companies including BPCL, IOC and OIL has signed a Sale Purchase Agreement on Friday to buy 23.9 percent stake in Russia’s Vankor field.

The agreement between Oil India, IOC, and Bharat PetroResources, an arm of Bharat Petroleum Corp and state-run Rosneft was signed in St. Petersburg. The deal is for $2.1 billion, IOC said in a statement.

The deal was signed during the visit of Dharmendra Pradhan, Petroleum Minister of State at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), held on June 16-17. SPIEF is an economic event of Russia where global companies, political leaders and some of the largest companies participate.

Recently, ONGC Videsh Ltd has acquired 15 percent share in the Vankor fields for $1.27 billion.

“Indian consortium of IOC, BPCL and OIL signed the agreement; earlier OVL had acquired 15 percent stakes in Vankor,” Pradhan said in a tweet.

Both IOC and OIL each will pick up 8 percent stake while the rest 7.8 percent stake will be taken by BRPL.

“A definitive agreement has been signed by IOC, OIL and BRPL to acquire 23.9 percent stake in Rosneft Oil Company in JSC Vankorneft, a firm created under the Russian Federation law, which owned licenses for Vankor and North Vankor Field,” IOC said in a statement.

Rosneft has 85 percent stake in Vankor. “It is the largest of the fields, discovered and commissioned in Russia during the last 25 years and is located in the North East Siberia in Turukhansk district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 142 km away from Igarka town,” the statement added.

The statement also added that the closure of the deal will increase IOC’s equity oil portfolio by 1.6 million tonnes per annum and the resources that can be recovered from the Vankor fields will be 138 billion cubic metrics of gas and 361 million tonnes of oil.