Rockefeller Oil Company, belonging to Steven Clark-Rockefeller has
agreed to purchase 100% of the Russian oil TNI Group (Tekhneftinvest),
which owns seven blocks with overall reserves of 180 million tons of oil
and 20 billion cubic metres of gas. The fields are already being
developed. The deal is not yet closed, but it is worth an estimated $1
billion dollars.
This will not be Mr Rockefeller’s first attempt to enter Russia’s oil business. In 2012 his fund BESS (British Empire Special Solutions Plc) tried to buy out a 51% stake in ZAO Geotransgas and shares in OOO Urengoyskaya Gazovaya Kompaniya, for $612 million from diamond-miners ALROSA and investment bank VTB Capital. But the deal was never closed, and ALROSA decided to develop non-core
gas assets independently.
Among Tekhneftinvest’s main assets are seven fields in the Yamal and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Regions. Nearly all the licenses lose their validity in 2025. Their overall reserves are 181 million tons of oil and 19.3 billion cubic metres of gas. Currently being developed are the Palnikovsk field (2,300 tons in 2008, overall extractions since it was opened in 2007 are 4,800 tons), along with four fields in the Izvestinsk source (130,000 tons of oil, 112 million cubic metres of gas in 2011).
Tekhneftinvest is a company with a troubled past. NK Tekhneftinvest was registered in 2002. Its sole owner was Sagitech Investments Limited (Cyprus). An unofficial beneficiary of the company is former Sibneft top manager Fedor Khoroshilov. But since 27 November 2012 it has been in a state of liquidation. The reason for the bankruptcy procedure was the economic crisis of 2008, after which the company was not able to service its loans (the main creditor was VTB). By the end of 2008 the company’s balances included long-term obligations of 26.5 billion roubles, and by 2009 their debts had increased to 28.5 billion roubles. At the end of 2011 this figure had grown to 44.8 billion roubles.
In 2009 the Moscow Arbitrazh Court ordered Tekhneftinvest to pay VTB at first $469 million and then $291.5million in debts according to two loan agreements. The company appealed this decision, but lost at a cassational instance. Today VTB owns 100% assets.
Vitaly Kryukov from IFD Capital notes that at $0.78 per barrel, Tatneftinvest has assets ‘within the range of the market’. According to him, there are quite a few relatively small companies like this on the market. But purchasing comes with certain risks attached, since reserves and well-productivity can turn out to be less than the forecasts. The analyst says VTB has been offering non-core assets to all the big oil companies that own fields in Yalta and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Regions – the largest oil-drilling region. “It should be taken as a warning that none of the Russian oil companies interested in Tekhneftinvest, despite the attractiveness of the region and the good reserves”, notes Mr Krykov. Yesterday employees at the biggest Russian oil companies were unable to confirm whether they were interested in Transneftinvest. At the same time, adds the analyst, if the blocks’ reserves turn out to be larger than expected or if new fields are discovered in these blocks, investment could pay dividends.
Read full russian version at: http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2161969
This will not be Mr Rockefeller’s first attempt to enter Russia’s oil business. In 2012 his fund BESS (British Empire Special Solutions Plc) tried to buy out a 51% stake in ZAO Geotransgas and shares in OOO Urengoyskaya Gazovaya Kompaniya, for $612 million from diamond-miners ALROSA and investment bank VTB Capital. But the deal was never closed, and ALROSA decided to develop non-core
gas assets independently.
Among Tekhneftinvest’s main assets are seven fields in the Yamal and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Regions. Nearly all the licenses lose their validity in 2025. Their overall reserves are 181 million tons of oil and 19.3 billion cubic metres of gas. Currently being developed are the Palnikovsk field (2,300 tons in 2008, overall extractions since it was opened in 2007 are 4,800 tons), along with four fields in the Izvestinsk source (130,000 tons of oil, 112 million cubic metres of gas in 2011).
Tekhneftinvest is a company with a troubled past. NK Tekhneftinvest was registered in 2002. Its sole owner was Sagitech Investments Limited (Cyprus). An unofficial beneficiary of the company is former Sibneft top manager Fedor Khoroshilov. But since 27 November 2012 it has been in a state of liquidation. The reason for the bankruptcy procedure was the economic crisis of 2008, after which the company was not able to service its loans (the main creditor was VTB). By the end of 2008 the company’s balances included long-term obligations of 26.5 billion roubles, and by 2009 their debts had increased to 28.5 billion roubles. At the end of 2011 this figure had grown to 44.8 billion roubles.
In 2009 the Moscow Arbitrazh Court ordered Tekhneftinvest to pay VTB at first $469 million and then $291.5million in debts according to two loan agreements. The company appealed this decision, but lost at a cassational instance. Today VTB owns 100% assets.
Vitaly Kryukov from IFD Capital notes that at $0.78 per barrel, Tatneftinvest has assets ‘within the range of the market’. According to him, there are quite a few relatively small companies like this on the market. But purchasing comes with certain risks attached, since reserves and well-productivity can turn out to be less than the forecasts. The analyst says VTB has been offering non-core assets to all the big oil companies that own fields in Yalta and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Regions – the largest oil-drilling region. “It should be taken as a warning that none of the Russian oil companies interested in Tekhneftinvest, despite the attractiveness of the region and the good reserves”, notes Mr Krykov. Yesterday employees at the biggest Russian oil companies were unable to confirm whether they were interested in Transneftinvest. At the same time, adds the analyst, if the blocks’ reserves turn out to be larger than expected or if new fields are discovered in these blocks, investment could pay dividends.
Read full russian version at: http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2161969
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