Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) has joined the Indian consortium by buying the 49 percent stake in Russia’s Vankor Cluster oil fields in the Arctic region.
Originally, ONGC Videsh Ltd which is the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore buying a stake in Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye fields which are collectively known as Vankor Cluster. Later, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India (OIL) and Bharat PetroResources (BPRL) came in using the influence of the oil ministry.
HPCL has now shown interest and joined the talks. Rosneft, Russia’s national oil company that owns the fields, wants to retain a majority stake and is keen to sell only up to 49 percent stake. While OVL is keen to take the largest share of 20-26 percent stake then OIL-IOC-BPRL-HPCL may have 23.9 percent.
Last year, OVL first acquired 15 percent in Russia’s second-biggest oil field of Vankor for ₹8,400 crores and then bought another 11 percent for ₹5,900 crores. The 26 percent stake would give OVL 7.31 million tonnes of oil.
The consortium of OIL-IOC-BPRL acquired 23.9 percent stake in the field at a cost of ₹12,900 crores, giving them 6.56 million tonnes of oil. While Rosneft continues to hold the remaining 50.1 percent shares of Vankorneft.
Vankor produces about 4,42,000 barrels of oil per day which is 4 percent of Russian crude oil production.