Russ Oil-Gas

02.01.2006 - [Neftegaz.ru] - Russia's state oil company Rosneft has invited India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to underwrite part of its multi-billion dollar IPO which is set to take place later this year. In return Rosneft offers ONGC long-term strategic partnership, MosNews reported. Earlier Rosneft plans to hit the London capital markets with an IPO of between $15 billion and $20 billion sometime in the middle of the year. The placement is part of the effort to retire the $7.6 billion debt Rosneft had acquired while taking over Yuganskneftegaz, core production asset of the dismantled Yukos Oil Company. The Indian public sector explorer was also open to offering Rosneft a stake in its refining and gas sector projects in India which use oil and gas from the Russian company's properties. Various options are being considered while structuring the deal. According to officials of the Petroleum Ministry, which has just been taken over by Mumbai-based Murli Deora after former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was shifted out, India would like to receive as much as one million barrels of oil a day from Russia, either directly or through swap deals. "ONGC and its group companies are looking at a $15-$20 billion investment globally, of which a significant portion could be in Russia," the source revealed. After getting into the Sakhalin-1 project, ONGC Videsh had originally proposed acquiring participating interest in two major Russian assets — Sibneft and Yuganskneftegaz — in partnership with Rosneft and Gazprom.