Rosneft & Sberbank Reach Agreement on Taas-Yuryakh

Rosneft and Sberbank signed a tentative agreement on the acquisition by Rosneft of a 35.3 percent stake in Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha.

Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha holds production licences for the Srednebotuobinsk oil and gas condensate field, which is situated 160 km north of the ESPO pipeline. Recoverable oil reserves of the field are estimated at 90.9 million tonnes of C1 and 38.9 million tonnes of ?2 category. Due to its size the field was put on the list of Fields of Federal Importance on March 18, 2010. The deal price was set at $444 million, which equals to the historical cost incurred by Sberbank.

“The acquisition is a major step forward in strengthening Rosneft’s world-class reserve base in Eastern Siberia and ensuring deliveries to the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean pipeline. Together with the Yurubcheno- Tokhomsk field, these projects will form the foundation of the Company’s East-Siberian production cluster within the next few years. After closing the deal with Sberbank, Rosneft will be working with other shareholders of Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha to ensure the success of the project. The company will also reach out to federal authorities to make sure that necessary fiscal conditions are in place for the project to be profitable,” said Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov.

Commenting on the agreement, Herman Gref, President and Chairman of the Management Board at Sberbank said: “We are glad to see the Srednebotuobinsk project gain a strategic investor. I am certain that we will keep working with Rosneft to expand our cooperation – on this project and beyond.”

Until 2009, the 35.3 percent stake in Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha was held by Urals Energy, which in the course of the financial crisis in 2008-2009 had to hand over the asset to Sberbank Capital to cover overdue loans. The remaining stakes are held by Yakut Energy Limited (37.4 percent) and Finfund Limited (16.8 percent) as well as Limenitis Holding Limited (10.5 percent). The latter is part of the Ashmore Investment Management Group.