Royal Dutch Shell is offering OJSC Rosneft a stake in the Miro Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein GmbH & Co KG refinery in exchange for the right to participate in two oil fields that the Russians plan to develop, the Vedomosti daily reported citing two anonymous sources at Rosneft.
A third source told the newspaper that the proposal is part of the strategic cooperation the two companies announced in July. This source said Shell and the state-owned Russian company began discussing the matter when they signed the agreement.
The two oil majors have yet to agree on the size of the stake which Rosneft could receive in the Miro refinery. In exchange, Shell will be able to participate in the development of the Severo-Komsomolsk field in the Yamal-Nents autonomous region as well as the Tuapse project in the Black Sea.
Shell and Rosneft declined to comment on the matter when contacted by the newspaper. Vedomosti wrote that the Severo-Komsomolsk's proven reserves include 30 mln tonnes of oil and 13.5 bln cubic metres of gas.
The Black Sea site holds 733 mln barrels of oil equivalents, it added. Miro is Germany's largest oil refinery, with an annual production capacity of 16 mln tonnes of petrol, diesel, heating oil and other petroleum products.
Shell holds a 32.25 pct stake, ESSO owns 25 pct, Ruhr Oel Gmbh owns 24 pct and ConocoPhillips holds the remaining 18.75 pct of it. A Moscow-based analyst told the newspaper that Shell's Miro stake is worth 2.5-3.0 bln usd.
(AFX News)