Structures of NOC Eduard Khudainatov invested in the former assets of Ruspetro in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra

As Kommersant learned, the buyer of Ruspetro’s former production assets in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra – Inga and Trans-Oil – was the structure of the Independent Oil and Gas Company (NOC) of Eduard Khudainatov, which already has production areas in the area. At the end of November, Trust sold fields with reserves of 127 million tons of oil at auction for 20 billion rubles, but the buyer was not disclosed. LUKOIL, which has a resource base near the fields, competed with NOC for these assets.

NNK acquired at an auction from the bank of non-core assets “Trust” the oil producing structures of JSC Inga and JSC Trans-Oil, several sources told Kommersant. Trust did not disclose the name of the winner of the auction, which took place in the second half of November (see Kommersant on November 21). The transaction amount was 20 billion rubles, 2.6 times more than the starting price. According to one of the interlocutors, LUKOIL also lost the competition for the asset, offering a lower price. According to the auction site, applications were received from six applicants. NNK and Trust did not comment.

NNK is owned by former Rosneft president Eduard Khudainatov. According to Kommersant, at the end of 2022 the oil company produced 20.2 million tons. At the end of 2020, NNK sold a group of Payakh fields to Rosneft for $11 billion, and also received from the state company production assets worth about $1.4 billion, including Severnaya Neft, Varieganneftegaz, Sakhalinmorneftegaz and Talinsky site (developed by Nyaganneft), the latter borders on the Inga area in the west. As a result of the transactions, NOC production increased approximately tenfold compared to 2019. Rosneft explained the sale of these “tail assets” by portfolio optimization.

LUKOIL’s interest in the fields put up for auction is explained by the fact that KhMAO-Yugra is its main oil-producing region. LUKOIL-Western Siberia, which operates there, accounts for more than 40% of the oil company’s production (about 33.7 million tons). In addition, from the south, the Pottym-Inginsky site borders on the eastern part of the Kamenny site of LUKOIL. While LUKOIL had almost no chance of acquiring large production assets in Russia, the purchase of Inga and Trans-Oil was just such an opportunity.

Trust received Inga and Trans-Oil from the private oil company Ruspetro, initiating bankruptcy of its former assets. The main shareholders of Ruspetro were Limolines Transport Ltd (25.16%; it was associated with Kirill Androsov and Andrey Likhachev), Alexander Chistyakov (15.7%), Otkritie Holding and its structure Otkritie Investments Cyprus (33.87%), Makayla Investments BVI (9.9%) by Andrey Rappoport. The Trust has repeatedly tried to sell the rights to claim debt from the former assets of Ruspetro. The bank managed to sell Inga and Trans-Oil after the President of the Russian Federation allowed these companies to be transferred under his control. Over the past few years, Trust sold two more assets in the oil and gas industry – the Timan-Pechora Gas Company and Uralneftegazprom, receiving about 2.5 billion rubles for them. The sale of former Ruspetro assets became its largest transaction in the oil and gas industry.

Inga and Trans-Oil have significant oil reserves, and there are fewer and fewer similar assets available on the market, says Dmitry Kasatkin from Kasatkin Consulting. He recalls that infrastructure, both transport and production, has already been built at the fields, and a synergistic effect with nearby NOC assets is possible.

Dmitry Kozlov