Rosneft Closes Stake Sale at Arctic Venture

Russian oil major Rosneft has closed the sale of a 10% stake in its Vostok Oil LLC venture, the company announced in a stock exchange filing on December 29.

The company did not specify who the buyer was in the filing, although last month it reported that its board of directors had approved the transfer of a 10% share in Vostok Oil LLC to commodities trader Trafigura. The deal's value was not reported.

Rosneft's Vostok Oil project comprises a cluster of oil and gas fields in the Russian Arctic which Rosneft estimates to contain 6bn metric tons (44bn barrels) of liquid hydrocarbons – enough to support more than 2mn barrels/day of production. There are also substantial gas reserves, with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin recently claiming that as much as 50mn mt/yr of LNG could be exported from the fields.

Rosneft also said it had closed the acquisition of 100% stakes in companies called JSC Taimyrneftegaz and LLC Taimyrburservis. The company has referred to Taimyrneftegaz in past statements as a subsidiary of Neftegazholding, a private oil firm that controls the Paiyakha fields that will form part of Vostok Oil.