MOSCOW: According to the results of the auction, the right to develop the Erginskoye deposit was received by Rosneft, said Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy.
According to him, 17 steps were taken by the participants of the auction, in which along with Rosneft, the companies RN-Uvatneftegaz, Gazpromneft-Khantos and PioneerGeo took part. As a result, the last move was made by Rosneft, which offered 20.071 billion rubles ($330m) for the last free large deposit of Russia. “We are confident that the development will have a high profitability, since the subsoil area has a very good location – near the infrastructure of already developed deposits, which significantly reduces costs,” commented Donskoy on the results of the auction. The Erginskoe oil field was discovered in 1995, its recoverable reserves are estimated (by categories C1 and C2) in more than 100 million tons. Previously, interest in its development was expressed by Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, NOVATEK, LUKOIL, Surgutneftegaz and the Independent Oil and Gas Company. However, in December 2016, the head of LUKOIL, Vagit Alekperov, said that the company refused to participate in the auction for the development of the Erginskoe field.
