Lukoil to buy Samara-Nafta unit from Hess for $2.05 billion

OAO Lukoil signed an agreement with Hess Corp. to acquire 100% of Hess’s Russian subsidiary Samara-Nafta for a total of $2.05 billion. Hess had reported it was considering selling its Russian interests late in 2012 (OGJ Online, Nov. 12, 2012).

Based on its 90% interest in Samara-Nafta, total aftertax proceeds to Hess are expected to be $1.8 billion. Samara-Nafta is currently producing 50,000 boe/d in Russia’s Volga-Urals region.

So far this year, Hess has reported or completed the sale of interests in Beryl field in the UK North Sea, the Eagle Ford play in Texas, and the Azeri, Chirag, and Guneshli fields in Azerbaijan and the associated pipeline. Including Samara-Nafta, the total aftertax proceeds from these sales will amount to about $3.4 billion.

John B. Hess, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “As the sale of Samara-Nafta indicates, we are making excellent progress in executing our asset sales program, which is a central component of our plan to transform Hess into a more focused, higher growth, lower risk pure play exploration and production company.”

Closing of the sale of Samara-Nafta is subject to the customary approval process of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation. Application for this approval process is expected to be filed within the next week.