RIL in talks to sell entire stake in Kurdistan oil fields to Chevron for $200 mn

Reliance Industries (RIL), is in talks with US oil giant Chevron Corp, over selling its entire stake in two oil fields in the Kurdistan autonomous region in Iraq for around $200 million, the Sunday Times reported over the weekend without citing any sources.

Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, had acquired 100 per cent participating interest in the Rovi and Sarta blocks in the northern Kurdistan part of Iraq in 2007 for around $15.5-17.5 million from the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

The deal had provided KRG with the right to exercise 15 per cent interest to a local Kurdish oil firm.

The two blocks cover an area of 517 and 607 sq km, respectively, and have nearly 80 per cent oil-bearing structure with an estimated reserve of around a billion barrels of oil.

RIL buying the stake invited the wrath of the Iraqi government, which claims rights over the entire oil resources in the country.

In May 2010, the KRG sold a 20-per cent stake in the fields to Austria's OMV Petroleum Exploration GmbH for an undisclosed sum, reportedly without informing RIL.