The board of directors of independent gas producer NOVATEK (RTS: NVTK) has approved purchase of a 51% stake in Yamal LNG for $650 million, NOVATEK said in a statement according to Interfax.
Yamal LNG is the operator of the South-Tambeyskoye field.
The shares are being acquired from three structures affiliated with the Volga Resources SICAV SIF S.A. fund.
It was reported earlier that Gennady Timchenko, the founder of oil trading company Gunvor, is the main owner of Volga Resources fund.
The company has already received clearance for the transaction from the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) had previously announced plans to build an LNG plant at the field. At the time it had named ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Shell as potential participants in the project. NOVATEK's acquisition of the stake puts it in position to participate in the LNG
project.
NOVATEK CEO Leonid Mikhelson commented: "The acquisition of the South-Tambeyskoye field significantly increases our resource base."
It is not the first time NOVATEK has had a stake in the field. In 2003 it acquired a blocking stake in Tambeyneftegaz, which held the license to the field. But NOVATEK sold the stake to Gazprombank in June 2005 and in July the license to the field was transferred to Yamal LNG. At that point Nikolai Bogachev controlled the field.
In 2006 Gazprombank filed suit over the transfer of the license. The litigation ultimately led to Bogachev's withdrawal from the project. In late 2006, he sold 74.9% stakes in both Tambeyneftegaz and Yamal LNG to a group of investors led by tycoon Alisher Usmanov. The other 25.1% stakes were held by a Gazprom company: Gazprombank-Invest LLC.
In early 2009 Usmanov said that he had sold the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field to structures close to Gazprombank at the end of 2008.