Rosneft might buy Paiyakhskoye field from Khudainatov for other assets - paper
MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Rosneft might buy the Paiyakhskoye field from Eduard Khudainatov's Neftegazholding for cash and a number of assets, national daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
Rosneft's board of directors approved the purchase of the field, which is supposed to become part of the Vostok Oil project, on November 16, when it also approved the sale of a 10% stake in Vostok Oil to international trader Trafigura, the paper said.
The deal might enable Khudainatov to pay off his group's debts, and Rosneft to complete the consolidation of Vostok Oil fields, the paper said.
Assets that Rosneft might use to pay for the deal include RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz, Varyeganneftegaz , RN-Severnaya Neft, the Talinskoye field, as well as the tail assets of Orenburgneft and Samaraneftegaz, the paper said. The first three companies produced 5.7 million tonnes of oil in 2019, while Neftegazholding itself produced a little over 2 million tonnes.
Rosneft did not directly confirm the planned acquisition, but said that the "inclusion of the Paiyakhskoye and Zapadno-Irkinskoye fields within the perimeter of Vostok Oil will increase the project's resource base by more than 2 billion tonnes," Kommersant reported. The oil company also confirmed plans to sell a number of assets "in southern Russia, Sakhalin, in the Volga-Ural region, Timan-Pechora and Western Siberia."
Rosneft attributed its desire to dispose of these assets to "tax regulation trends, as well as the restriction of production within the context of OPEC+ and the current epidemiological situation."
Rosneft said the buyers will be "Russian oil and oil refining companies that need additional production and are prepared to invest in increasing efficiency and the growth of oil recovery rates at mature fields, as well as prepared to assume all social obligations." Rosneft did not comment on the reports that the buyer is Neftegazholding, the paper said.
The Paiyakhskoye field, the license to which is held by Taimyrneftegaz, has booked reserves of more than 1 billion tonnes in the national registry, but it is still at the exploration stage. However, Rosneft has promised to ship 30 million tonnes of oil from Vostok Oil via the Northern Sea Route by 2024 already.
The field could be worth about $5 billion, Kommersant reported one source as saying. The paper's other sources said Rosneft might use proceeds from the sale of the 10% stake in Vostok Oil to Trafigura to pay for Paiyakhskoye.
