Rosneft Sells SevKomNeftegaz Stakes to Equinor
Russian state giant Rosneft closed a deal to sell 33.33% of its wholly-owned SevKomNeftegaz oil and gas condensate project to the Norwegian state-controlled Equinor for an undisclosed sum, leaving it with two-thirds, the company announced January 25.
The transaction was part of the agreements reached between the companies earlier. Rosneft will develop the North Komsomolsk field in Russia's far north, which is among the subsidiary's assets. In the major gas-producing Purov and Nadym districts of the Yamal-Nenetsk autonomous region, its recoverable reserves of oil and condensate amount to 203mn mt and 179bn m3 gas.
Rosneft and Equinor have been working together in various sectors since 2012, including the North Komsomolskoye pilot project for viscous oil development; the pilot project for development of Domanik limestone formation in the Samara region; and offshore exploration.
Rosneft hit by Venezuela
Rosneft has also been active in Venezuela, where the political crisis has had a knock-on effect on its value. It lent $6.5bn to Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, partly as pre-payment for crude, $3.1bn of which remained outstanding as of the end of September, according to UK business daily Financial Times.
Based on Reuters’ calculation also, over the last few years, Moscow has become Venezuela’s lender of last resort, with the Russian government and Rosneft handing Venezuela at least $17bn in loans and credit lines since 2006.
According to Moscow stock exchange’s latest statistics, the share value of Rosneft declined from Rub 420 in January 23 to below Rub 410 by January 25.