Novatek, Gazprom Neft offer Enel, Eni $4.9 bln for shares in SeverEnergia - paper
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Novatek and Gazprom Neft , which own 51% of gas producer SeverEnergia, last week made an offer to their Italian partners Enel and Eni to buy out their combined stake of 49% for $4.9 billion, national daily Kommersant reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
The Russian companies offered Eni $2.9 billion for its 29.4% stake in SeverEnergia, the paper said. Enel, which has already agreed to sell its 19.6% stake to Russian state oil major Rosneft for $1.8 billion, was offered $2 billion by Novatek and Gazprom Neft.
The paper reported that Rosneft said on Tuesday that its agreement with Enel is legally binding. Gazprom Neft, Novatek, Eni and Enel declined to comment.
It was reported at the end of September that Rosneft was buying a stake in SeverEnergia. Soon after this, the owner of 23% of Novatek, Gennady Timchenko said in an interview with Kommersant that the independent gas producer had held negotiations with Enel for several months and that the sale of the stake to Rosneft came as a surprise. He said that Rosneft should have "first come to an agreement with existing shareholders."
Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson said only that his company was interested in increasing its stake in SeverEnergia, but did not specify with whom negotiations were being held.
"It probably would have been better to talk with Rosneft before they announced any agreements with the Italians. But unfortunately for us, [Rosneft president] Igor Ivanovich [Sechin] is a very busy person, he has a tight, heavy schedule, and apparently this is why he was not able to talk with us before the signing," Timchenko said.
"We now control the company, and even if Rosneft has 19%, what will this give it? The joint venture of Novatek and Gazprom Neft controls the process," Timchenko said.
SeverEnergia holds licenses to four sections of the Urengoy field with ABC1+C2 category reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas, 568 million tonnes of oil and 155 million tonnes of condensate. The joint venture of Novatek and Gazprom Neft, LLC Yamal Development owns 51% of SeverEnergia; this stake was bought from Gazprom in 2010, reportedly for $1.8 billion. The other 49% is owned by Arctic Russia B.V. SeverEnergia wanted to produce 1.8 bcm of gas and 250,000 tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons in 2012.
After the announcement of the deal between Rosneft and Enel, Novatek and Gazprom Neft began negotiations to buy Eni's stake, Kommersant reported.
The paper cited its sources as saying that SeverEnergia's shareholder agreement does not have a provision on priority rights to buy shares for existing shareholders. "But there are a number of factors and there is absolute certainty that the deal can be stopped," the paper quoted on source as saying.
Rosneft's application for permission to buy the stake in SeverEnergia had not yet been received by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service last week, according to Interfax sources.
The paper said its sources believe Rosneft and Novatek could come to terms on other projects so that Rosneft changes its position on SeverEnergia. For example, after purchasing TNK-BP, Rosneft acquired a 49% stake in Yugragazpererabotka, a joint venture with another company controlled by Timchenko and Mikhelson, petrochemicals group Sibur, and the state company is not happy with the terms of a contract for delivery of associated gas to two gas processing plants, Kommersant reported its sources as saying. After processing, Sibur buys all light hydrocarbons for its Tobolsk Neftekhim plant, while Rosneft is left with stripped gas. This issue could be resolved in exchange for Rosneft giving up Enel's stake in SeverEnergia, one of the paper's sources said.
