Russia’s state-owned company Rosneft and India’s ONGC Videsh Limited have closed the transaction for the purchase of 11% of Vankorneft by the Indian company, Rosneft said in a statement quoted by Tass.

The base price of the transaction is about $930 mln.

Earlier, Rosneft closed the transaction for the sale of 23.9% in Vankorneft to a consortium of Indian companies – Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources for $2 bln and a 29.9% stake in the Taas-Yuryah Neftegazodobycha for $1.12 bln. As a result, the share of the Indian state-owned companies in Vankorneft rose to 49.9%.

At the same time, the Russian government will order the sale of a 19.5 percent stake in state oil firm Rosneft (ROSN.MM) early next week, a government source told reporters on Friday.

Reuters reports that the sale should bring in around 700 billion rubles ($11 billion) to the budget, which has been hurt by lower oil prices and comes at a time when the government is looking around for money to cover social spending.

The state this month sold a 50.1 percent stake in mid-sized oil firm Bashneft to Rosneft for 330 billion rubles.

Autor: Bogdan Tudorache

Active in the economic and business press for the past 26 years, Bogdan graduated Law and then attended intensive courses in Economics and Business English. He went up to the position of editor-in-chief since 2006 and has provided management and editorial policy for numerous economic publications dedicated especially to the community of foreign investors in Romania. From 2003 to 2013 he was active mainly in the financial-banking sector. He started freelancing for Energynomics in 2013, notable for his advanced knowledge of markets, business communities and a mature editorial style, both in Romanian and English.