Rosneft Completes Acquisition of 100% Share in Orenburg Drilling

Russia’s Rosneft is opening the wallet to buy shares in a service company and to invest in Itera, a Cyprus-based group of companies controlled by Igor Makarov.

The company led by Igor Sechin completed acquisition of 100% share in Orenburg Drilling Company from VTB-Leasing Group, which is one of the leading universal banks in Russia.

“The Orenburg Drilling Company fleet of drilling units is one of the most modern in terms of technology and average age of the drilling units… Rosneft plans not only to concentrate on domestic drilling needs, but to carry on rendering services to third-party customers, contributing to oil production efficiency improvement,” Eric Liron, First Vice President of Rosneft, commented in a note released on Wednesday.

On Monday, the company had reportedly added 4.19bn rubles to Itera’s statutory capital.  Rosneft acquired full control of independent gas producers Itera in July 2013.