Sistema-owned oil company Bashneft acquires Burneftegaz for over $1 bn

Russian oil company Bashneft, one of the largest producers of oil products in the country, today said that it has acquired Western Siberia-focused oil firm Burneftegaz, in a deal worth more than $1 billion, including debt.

Bashneft, owned by Russian telecom giant Sistema, said that the deal had been approved by the Russian regulator, Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Sistema had acquired a controlling stake in Bashneft in 2009 for $ 2.5 billion.

Tyumen, Russian Federation-based- Burneftegaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft-Khantos, which in turn is a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom, owns the rights to exploration and development of the Sorovskoye and the Tortasinskoye fields having total oil reserves of 53.4 million tonnes.

Tortasinskneft, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Burneftegaz, also holds licences for geological exploration at the Severo-Ityakhskiy 3 and Vostochno-Unlorskiy subsoil areas.

''The acquisition of Burneftegaz fully meets the requirements of our strategy for the upstream segment, which involves expanding the resource base and acquiring promising assets which have considerable production potential,'' said Bashneft's president, Alexander Korsik.

''This transaction will enable considerable expansion of the company's footprint in the Tyumen District, where we are already implementing a number of successful upstream projects,'' he added.

Bashneft operates 140 oil and natural gas fields in Russia and has an annual oil production of 16 million tonnes. It owns three oil refineries located in Ufa and 100 petrol stations.