Russia's gas giant Gazprom has acquired the assets of RUSIA Petroleum, the license holder of the giant East Siberian Kovykta gas field, majority owned by Russian-British TNK-BP, RUSIA Petroleum Deputy Executive Director Alexander Smetanin said on Tuesday.
"The acquisition price will be known tomorrow," Smetanin said, adding that it slightly exceeds 15 billion rubles ($511 million), the initial price of the auction where the property was sold.
Gazprom will complete the acquisition within five days.
In October, a Russian regional court declared RUSIA Petroleum insolvent and started bankruptcy proceedings initiated by TNK-BP, half-owned by British major BP and four Russian billionaires, after the company had failed to repay its 11.85 billion ruble debt.
TNK-BP controlled the Kovykta gas field, with estimated reserves of over 2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, for some 15 years and intended to supply gas from the field to China. However, the Russian authorities then began asserting greater control over natural resources and dropped their previous plans to liberalize access to Gazprom's pipelines.
The government has threatened to revoke the Kovykta license from TNK-BP for low production levels, and the firm finally decided to quit the project in 2007.
TNK-BP argued that production targets set by the government for Kovykta became too onerous since it could not supply China, and local demand was low.
In 2007, Gazprom signed an agreement to buy a 62.8% stake in RUSIA Petroleum and take over the Kovykta gas field, but the deal has not been concluded up to now.
Gazprom was reported to have asked TNK-BP in December 2008 to reduce the price for the purchase of the Kovykta field, originally estimated at $700-900 million.
IRKUTSK, March 1 (RIA Novosti)
