The Hindu : Business : Rosneft keen to partner ONGC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 21, 2005

Business

Business

Rosneft keen to partner ONGC

Vladimir Radyuhin

ONGC will face stiff competition from foreign bidders

Rosneft is planning to offer a minority stake in Vankor to foreign bidders.

KRASNOYARSK: Russia's Rosneft state oil company would welcome ONGC's bid for a stake in the Vankor oil field in Eastern Siberia, but the Indian company will face stiff competition from other foreign bidders.

"We would be happy to have ONGC-Videsh Ltd. as our partner in the Vankor oil and gas project since we have been successfully cooperating in developing the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field," the First Deputy CEO of Rosneft, Sergei Alexeyev, said. "But ONGC will have to offer the best bid to win."

Rosneft, which holds the licence to develop the Vankor oil field in the north of Krasnoyarsk Region, is planning to offer a minority stake in Vankor to foreign bidders next year after it carries out additional prospecting to boost the market value of the asset. Last month Rosneft announced doubling its estimate of extractable reserves at Vankor to 250 million tonnes of crude, which makes it the biggest new oil deposit in Russia.

Rosneft chief told The Hindu at a regional investment forum in Kransoyarsk that his company would also put up for sale a 20 to 25 per cent stake in Yuganskneftegaz, the main production unit of the nationalised Yukos oil major. He said the share might be given to one bidder or divided among two or more companies. During his visit to Russia in February the Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, mentioned Vankor and Yuganskneftegaz among other Russian oil assets where India would like to acquire equity. In 2001 OVL bought from Rosneft a 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project, where it plans to invest close to $3 billion. OVL is expected to compete against the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for Yuganskneftegaz and against France's Total for Vankor.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business