Rosneft and Lukoil signed a package of legally binding documents regarding Rosneft’s acquisition of 20% share in the National Oil Consortium LLC (NOC), Rosneft says in its press release. Due to this deal the share of Rosneft in the charter capital of NOC will increase to 80%, with the remaining 20% owned by Gazprom Neft.
Consolidation of the consortium management resulting from the deal will allow to substantially improve operational control and have positive impact on the Junin-6 project implementation efficiency.
Commenting on the deal, Rosneft Head, Chairman of the NOC Board of Directors Igor Sechin said: "Rosneft consistently increases the volumes of cooperation with Venezuela. This year, for the first time, the Company obtained the right for commercialization of Venezuelan oil. Venezuela owns the most prospective resource base in the worlds’ oil industry. Therefore, taking into account the future decline of shale production in USA and Canada, it is Venezuelan oil that can become the substitutional element for the receding volumes of those markets”.
NOC was created in October of 2008 as part of extended Russian-Venezuelan economic cooperation, at the initiative and with direct participation of Igor Sechin, the then Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Russian fuel and energy complex.
In 2010, NOC and PDVSA of Venezuela set down the PetroMiranda joint venture to develop the Junin-6 Block, with 60% Venezuelan and 40% Russian shareholding.
The Junin-6 Block is situated in the Orinoco river heavy oil belt geological oil reserves are estimated at 8.5 bln tons. It is expected that upon reaching the design production capacity, the field will be producing 450 thousand barrels of oil per day.
During 2014 Rosneft Group and PDVSA signed two long-term contracts for supplies of oil and oil products of Venezuelan production.