Eni Agrees To Sell SeverEnergia Stake for $2.9 bln to Novatek and Gazprom Neft
Italian oil and gas group Eni has agreed to sell its stake in natural gas producer SeverEnergia to Russia’s Novatek and Gazprom Neft for $2.94 billion reported Reuters.
* Eni to be paid cash at closing
* Enel earlier sold SeverEnergia stake to Rosneft
* Eni exits upstream development in Siberia
The deal is likely to increase tensions between Russia’s oil barons, already heightened by the $1.8 billion sale earlier this month of utility Enel’s stake in SeverEnergia to Kremlin-controlled Rosneft.
SeverEnergia stakeholder Gennady Timchenko, a co-owner of Novatek had said the Enel stake in SeverEnergia was still of interest to him.
In a statement Eni, the biggest gas customer of Russia’s Gazprom, said it would be paid in cash when the deal was completed and would exit upstream development in Siberia.
Eni originally bought the stake for $600 million.
SeverEnergia, which is expected to produce 36 billion cubic metres of gas and liquids by 2017, is a joint venture between Yamal Development and Arctic Russia BV.
Eni owns 60 percent of Arctic Russia.
State-controlled Eni has a joint venture with Rosneft for exploration in the barents Sea and the Black Sea.
It is also a partner of Gazprom in the South stream gas pipeline project which will carry 63 billion cubic metres of Russian gas per year into Europe.
