Rosneft buying TNK-BP's stake in Venezuelan JV PetroMonagas
MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Rosneft is buying TNK-BP's stake in Venezuelan joint venture PetroMonagas, Venezuelan media outlets reported, citing Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez.
TNK-BP has a 16.7% stake in the joint venture, which it acquired in 2011. The remaining 83.3% belong to Venezuelan state-owned company PDVSA.
"TNK-BP's rights in PetroMonagas will be transferred to Rosneft," Ramirez said. The value of the deal is not being disclosed.
The sale of a stake in PetroMonagas is subject to Venezuelan government approval.
At present, PetroMonagas produces 150,000 barrels of oil a day, with plans to bring that up to 250,000 barrels per day.
In the middle of 2011, TNK-BP became a co-owner of three joint ventures with PDVSA, including PetroMonagas, which is implementing an integrated project in the Carabobo area. This project entails producing extra heavy oil, mixing that oil with a thinning agent, transporting the mixture to an extra heavy oil upgrader plant, and producing and selling synthetic oil.
According to the Venezuelan media, Rosneft and PDVSA plan to formalize anticipated investments of $37 billion in the Petrovictoria project on January 29. This project involves developing the Carabobo-2 block in order to produce up to 1.12 million barrels of oil a day.
Carabobo-2 is located in the Orinoco River basin, with reserves reaching 6.5 billion tonnes of oil. The contract bringing Rosneft into the project was signed at the end of last September. PDVSA has a 60% stake in the project, and Rosneft owns 40%. Rosneft is expected to invest $16 billion in the Carabobo-2 project.