ONGC's Rs 8,700 crore deal for Vankor oilfield stake gets Russian govt approval

The Russian government has approved a deal for India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to acquire a 15% stake in the Vankor oilfield for $1.3 billion (around Rs 8,648.6 crore) from Rosneft, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday citing Anti-Monopoly Service head Igor Artemyev.

Vankor, launched in 2009, produces around 440,000 barrels per day. The field is a source of Russian oil supply to China.

This month, ONGC signed an initial deal to raise its stake in Vankor to 26% from 15%, while the other three companies could together pick up 23.9%.

If the deals go through, Rosneft will retain 50.1% of Vankor.

The deals will help India secure access to Russia's oil output, while Rosneft will gain access to the Indian market.

Earlier, ONGC Videsh (OVL) along with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India and Bharat Petroleum were in talks to buy about 35% additional stake in Russia's Vankor oil field in Siberia for close to $3 billion (around Rs 20,148 crore).

OVL, the overseas arm of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had on September 4 last year agreed to buy 15% stake in Russia's second-biggest oil field of Vankor from Rosneft for $1.26 billion (around Rs 8.462.2 crore).