Rosneft to get 51% in JV with Itera
BUDYONNOVSK. March 4 (Interfax) - The oil company Rosneft will get a 51% stake in a joint venture with Itera, Rosneft head Eduard Khudainatov told the press on Sunday.
The negotiations will last "two or three months" he said.
The stakes in the joint venture have been fully appraised, and Rosneft will contribute the Kynsko-Chaselskaya group of fields and Itera all of its extracting and trading assets, including in the Sverdlovsk region and abroad, in the Baltic region and in Turkmenistan, the top manager said.
Itera's board of directors chairman and majority shareholder Igor Makarov will head the joint venture's board of directors.
Reports said earlier that the two companies have reached a deal on strategic partnership this week and agreed to set up a joint venture that will include almost all of Itera's assets (49% in Sibneftegaz, 49% in Purgaz and 67% in Uralsevergaz-NGK), and gas fields of Rosneft's Kynsko-Chaselskaya group. The assets provided by Itera include some 350 billion cubic meters of proven gas reserves. The Kynsko-Chaselsky sector encompasses six fields - Kynskoye, Fakhirovskoye, Novo-Chaselskoye, Naumovskoye and Ust- and Verkhne-Chaselskoye.
The aggregate reserves of the Kynsko-Chaselskaya group are estimated at 40.2 million tonnes of oil and 284.2 billion cubic meters of gas. According to a Rosneft report, the proven stock of gas at these fields amounts to only 61 billion cubic meters. Itera has operating assets with built infrastructure. Gas is practically not extracted at Rosneft fields.
At the initial stage the joint venture's aggregate recoverable reserve of liquid hydrocarbons and gas will amount to about 50.7 million tonnes and about 600 billion cubic meters, respectively. A source close to the deal said that, taking into account Rosneft's Kharampurskoye field to be added to the deal at the next stage , the aggregate reserves will increase to 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas ad 60 million tonnes of liquid hydro-carbons. In the coming years the joint venture will be able to extract and sell over 40 billion cubic of gas each year.
