Rosneft and Shell sign strategic deal
Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The document was signed on 6 July in Moscow by Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov and Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, Rosneft has reported.
The agreement provides an opportunity for joint upstream and downstream oil and gas projects, including exploration, production, processing and sale. It sets out the basic principles of strategic cooperation between the two major international energy companies, laying the foundation for long-term cooperation between Shell and Rosneft, both in Russia and elsewhere, Rosneft said in a statement.
“The agreement will allow both companies to significantly expand the scope and territory of their operations,” Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov said. “This cooperation will be beneficial not only from a commercial point of view, but also in terms of experience and technologies exchange,” he underlined. Bogdanchikov also expressed confidence that the deal was in the best interest of the two companies’ shareholders.
For his part, Jeroen van der Veer said that Russia was a strategic growth area for Shell and that his company was committed to developing its business in cooperation with Russian companies across the entire range of the energy business.
Acquisition of bankrupt oil firm YUKOS’s key assets made Rosneft Russia’s largest oil company. It expects to produce over 100 million tonnes of oil in 2007. Rosneft’s authorized capital (following the consolidation of its 12 subsidiaries) amounts to RUR 105,981,778.017 (approx. $4.1m), it is divided into 10,598,177,817 common shares with a nominal value of RUR 0.01. Rosneftegaz has a 75.16 percent stake, the rest is held by a broad range of strategic, institutional and individual investors. The company’s net profit in 2006 dropped by 15 percent to $3.53 billion.
Royal Dutch/Shell is one of Europe’s leading oil and gas companies, with operations in more than 130 countries. Its largest project in Russia is a stake in Sakhalin-2. After selling some of its shares in the project, Shell said it had not abandoned its business plans for Russia.
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