Repsol exits Russian JV

Spain's Repsol has reached an agreement to withdraw from one of its upstream joint ventures in Russia, the company has confirmed to NGW.

The company has agreed to sell its 49% interest in AR Oil & Gas (AROG) to its partner in the joint venture, Russia's privately-owned Neftegazholding. AROG controls exploration and development licences for around 20 oil and gas blocks in the regions of Tatarstan and Samara.

"The steps for a final completion are in process but we haven't disclosed dates or sales price," Repsol told NGW. "This transaction is aligned with the new strategic plan presented last year towards a more focused portfolio."

Repsol unveiled a new 2021-2025 strategy in November last year, under which it will scale back upstream investment to free up capital for investing in renewables. It also said it would halve the number of countries where it has upstream activities to 14 or less, as part of a focus on value over volume.

The Spanish oil company signed a preliminary deal to explore two large oil and gas blocks on Russia's northern Gydan Peninsula in 2019, but later opted against taking part in the project the following year. This March it also shut down its Moscow-based subsidiary Repsol E&P Eurasia.

The company retains interests in two other upstream joint ventures with Gazprom Neft, Yevrotek-Yugra and ASB Geo, however. The pair operates in Russia's oil heartland of Khanty-Mansiysk, where they have been appraising the 2014 Ourinskoye oil find. The field was estimated at the time of its discovery to hold 32mn metric tons (235mn barrels) in Russian C1+C2 classification oil reserves, meaning delineated and preliminary estimated reserves.

Neftegazholding is controlled by former Rosneft president Eduard Khudainatov. It recently acquired a number of legacy assets from Rosneft across Russia, while also transferring its interest in the giant Vostok Oil project in the Arctic to the state-owned company.