Russia’s Lukoil has abandoned its attempt to join RSSD, the joint venture set up to develop the Sangomar block offshore
Its decision came to light last week, when FAR revealed that the Russian company had opted not to submit a binding takeover offer ahead of a shareholders meeting scheduled for
Lukoil, Russia’s largest privately owned oil operator, had offered earlier this year to pay AUD220mn (
The Russian company’s decision to drop this plan clears the way for Australia’s Woodside Energy, the operator of RSSD, to proceed with its planned acquisition of FAR’s minority stake in the consortium. Indeed, FAR said in its statement that its board of directors still intended to sell this asset to Woodside on the same terms proposed last November by ONGC Videsh Vankorneft, a subsidiary of India’s
The two Australian firms formalised the deal with the signing of a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) on
As such, plans for the sale to Woodside are therefore likely to be approved at the
Lukoil has tried once before to acquire a stake in the RSSD group. It arranged to buy the 40% stake held by
RSSD’s licence area includes three separate fields – Rufisque, Sangomar Offshore and Sangomar Deep Offshore, which give the joint venture its name. Oil was discovered at the block in 2014, and the joint venture has estimated that it contains 645mn barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves, including 485mn barrels of crude oil and 160mn boe of natural gas. Woodside hopes to begin production in 2023.
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