India walks away from buying two oil deposits from Russia’s oil giant Rosneft
India refused Rosneft's offer to buy five additional oilfields in the Vankor cluster (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia), reported Indian newspaper The Economic Times citing sources familiar with the negotiations.
"We do not want to put all of our eggs in one basket. Russia can continue to offer oil deposits, but we cannot accept all proposals," the source said. "We have invested enough in Russia, so, there is no need to close this deal urgently. There are other attractive opportunities for investment in the world."
According to another source, "Indian oil companies have told Rosneft that they are not interested in buying and would like to confine themselves only to discussing the three oilfields."
According to the newspaper, Oil India Limited (OIL) is in talks with Rosneft about acquisition of the Suzun, Tagul and Lodochnoye oilfields. The Russian company proposed to sell another five oil rigs located in the same region. No development has ever been conducted in any of the eight oil-bearing areas.
The newspaper points out that Rosneft's proposal for five additional fields and its subsequent rejection by the Indian side hampered the entire negotiation process. India is in fact trying to diversify risks globally by distributing investments in oil and gas extraction among different regions of the world.
Earlier, Rosneft closed the deals on a 23.9% stake in Vankorneft for $2 billion with a consortium of Indian companies, namely Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources. Rosneft also sold a 29.9% stake in Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha for $1.12 billion. As a result, the share of Indian state-owned companies in Vankorneft increased to 49.9%.