Rosneft Completes Acquisition of 49 pc Stake in Essar Oil

Rosneft has successfully completed the acquisition of 49.13 percent shares of Essar Oil Limited (EOL) from Essar Energy Holdings Limited (EOL) and its affiliates.

An investment consortium comprising Swiss commodity trading firm Trafigura and Russian private fund United Capital Partners (UCP) has also announced the closure of their acquisition of a separate 49.13 percent share of EOL.

The closing of the acquisition enables Rosneft to enter one of the world’s fastest-growing markets (29.8 percent cumulative GDP growth in India in 2013-2016).

Rosneft has acquired a stake in the first-class asset with a significant development potential. The Vadinar refinery, located in the state of Gujarat, possesses high feedstock flexibility, with heavy grades from Latin America accounting for more than half of all feedstock processed.

The refinery’s configuration is one of the most technologically complicated in the Asia-Pacific region and has significant prospects for expansion in the development of the petrochemical production. The availability of all the necessary infrastructure (a deep-water port, storage terminals and own power station are part of the transaction), as well as Rosneft’s shares in upstream projects in Venezuela and working offtake contracts with PDVSA, will provide Rosneft with significant operational synergies and help improve the refinery’s economics.

EOL has a vast retail network of over 3,500 Essar-branded fuel stations across India. This sales channel will further improve the asset’s operational and financial performance thanks to the steadily growing local demand for high added value oil products and EOL’s retail development strategy.

“This day marks the beginning of a new chapter for EOL. Together with our partners, we intend to support the company to significantly improve its financial performance and, in the medium term, adopt an asset development strategy. The closing of the deal is a remarkable achievement for Rosneft too: The company has entered the high-potential and fast-growing Asia Pacific market,” said Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s CEO.

“The acquisition of the stake in the Vadinar refinery creates unique opportunities for synergies with existing Rosneft-owned assets and will help improve efficiency of supply to other countries within the region,” added Sechin.