Rosneft-Itera JV to develop under Itera brand
MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The joint venture Rosneft chief Eduard Khudainatov and chairman of the Itera board of directors Igor Makarov decided to set up this week will be developed under the Itera trade name, a source close to the gas company told Interfax.
The companies are not saying what their stakes in the JV will be, or what the final structure of the deal will be. The parties have agreed that the deal will involve all NGK Itera LLC assets (49% of OJSC Sibneftegas, 49% of CJSC Purgas, and 67% of CJSC Uralsevergas-NGK) and Rosneft's Kynsko-Chaselskaya group gas deposits.
Itera provides the operating assets and associated infrastructure. There is virtually no production going on at the Rosneft deposits.
Itera reckons that the JV will include the large Rosneft deposit Kharampurskoye, with its reserves of 400 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas. It is not now known whether stock or cash will be used in the deal by either of the companies.
The Kynsko-Chaselskaya group contains six deposits - Kynskoye, Fakhirovskoye, Novo-Chaselskoye, Naumovskoye, Ust-Chaselskoye, and Verkhne-Chaselskoye. The Chaselskaya group has aggregate reserves of 40.2 million tonnes of oil and 284.2 bcm of gas. According to a report by Rosneft, these deposits have total proven gas reserves of just 61 bcm.
At the Kynskoye deposit, with its proven reserves of 3.7 bcm of gas and 1.5 million tonnes of oil, 1.5 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas was produced in 2011. At the Ust-Chaselskoye deposit (1 million tonnes proven oil reserves), no production is being done. At the Novo-Chaselskoye deposit (3.6 million tonnes of oil, 30 bcm of gas), 88 mcm of gas was extracted last year. At the Verkhne-Chaselskoye and Naumovskoye deposits there are no proven reserves yet, only probable and possible liquid hydrocarbon reserves of 4.3 million tonnes at the former and 1.5 million tonnes at the latter.
The Fakhirovskoye deposit holds 27 bcm of proven gas reserves and 2.9 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons. No production is being done there at this time.
The Yuzhno-Russkoye deposit is also idle, but holds proven gas reserves of 0.3 bcm.
At the initial phase, the JV's combined recoverable liquid hydrocarbon and gas reserves amounted to a respective roughly 50.7 million tonnes and 600 bcm. The source said that, with Rosneft's Kharampurskoye deposit being included in the deal in a subsequent phase, total reserves will increase to 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas and 60 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons. In the next few years the unified company will be able to produce and sell upwards of 40 bcm of gas annually.
The assets contributed by Itera have about 350 bcm of proven gas reserves. Purgas (Itera 49%, Gazprom 51%) produces 15 bcm of gas per year and has proven reserves of more than 216 bcm. Sibneftegas (Itera 49%, OJSC NOVATEK 51%) produces 10.3 bcm a year and has proven reserves of 490 bcm.
CJSC Uralsevergas-NGK (Itera 67%, Sverdlovsk Region government 30%) is the key supplier of natural gas to Sverdlovsk Region, where consumption runs to some 15-20 bcm per year.
