Rosneft inks TNK-BP deal to become world’s top oil producer

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia’s state-owned Rosneft put the final touches to its takeover of TNK-BP on Thursday, March 21 to become the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, RIA Novosti said.

The deal for the purchase of TNK-BP from Britain’s BP and the AAR consortium of Russian billionaire shareholders places Rosneft ahead of Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell in terms of crude production.

“Rosneft and BP today completed a number of transactions, in line with the terms announced in October 2012,” Rosneft said in a statement.

BP is receiving a net payment of $12.5 billion in cash, including a TNK-BP dividend of $0.7 billion and an 18.5 percent stake in Rosneft. Rosneft is getting BP’s 50 percent interest in TNK-BP in exchange for $16.7 billion in cash and 12.8 per cent of Rosneft shares.

In a separate part of the deal, Rosneft paid $27.7 billion in cash to the AAR consortium of Russian billionaire shareholders for their half of TNK-BP.

Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin says his company is set to produce 206 million tons of oil and 47 billion cubic meters of gas in 2013.

He announced late last year that Rosneft would, once its acquisition of TNK-BP had gone through, account for 5 percent of global oil output.

“Oil production will rise from 2.4 million barrels per day to 4.1 million bpd and overall output (of hydrocarbons) will grow to 4.6 million barrels (of oil equivalent) per day from the current 2.6 million bpd,” Sechin said at the time.