CCEA nod for acquisition of 29.9% and 23.9% in Rosneft subsidiaries by Indian consortium
28 Sep 2016
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval to an Indian Consortium comprising Oil India Limited (OIL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Bharat Petro Resources Limited (BPRL) for acquiring 23.9 per cent stake in JSC Vankorneft and 29.9 per cent stake in LLC Taas-Yuryakh from Russia's Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft).
Rosneft, the national oil company of the Russian Federation, owns and operates Vankor and Tass-Yuryakh fields as wholly owned subsidiaries.
The acquisition of stake in Vankorneft will provide 6.56 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE) and the 29.9 per cent stake in Taas-Yuryakh will provide 0.5 MMTOE initially and 1.5 MMTOE by 2019.
The acquisition is in line with India's stated objective of adding high quality international assets to its exploration and production portfolio and thereby augmenting India's energy security.
The consortium will be paying $2.02 billion for acquiring stake in Vankorneft and $
1.24 billion for acquiring stake in Taas-Yuryakh. Earlier, in May 2016, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) completed the formalities of acquiring 15 per cent stake in Vankorneft for around $1.28 billion which gave OVL 4.11 MMTOE.
The acquisition will add 8.06 MMTOE to India's overseas oil and gas assets. It will also provide an opportunity to Indian public sector oil and gas companies to absorb newer technologies with Rosneft and British Petroleum (BP). BP acquired 20 per cent stake in Taas-Yuryakh from Rosneft last year.