MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - The TNK-BP managing director confirmed Friday that energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] and the Russian-British joint oil venture had delayed the closure of the Kovykta gas field deal until December 1.
State-controlled Gazprom signed a deal with the oil company to buy a 63% controlling stake in East Siberia's largest deposit in late June. Earlier this month, the concern said it had extended the timeframe for finalizing the deal, citing "a high volume of work evaluating the assets and organizing the transactions."
Speaking on the sidelines of an investment forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Viktor Vekselberg, also TNK-BP's major investor, said: "At the latest meeting with [Gazprom CEO Alexei] Miller, we agreed to extend the closure of the deal by two months, until December 1."
Vekselberg said TNK-BP had evaluated the deposit at 900 billion rubles ($35.6 billion).
Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee, said earlier his company believed TNK-BP's assets at Kovykta were worth $600-$700 million.
The deposit's reserves are estimated at 2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, 2.3 billion cubic meters of helium and 115 million metric tons of gas condensate. As well as TNK-BP, the operator of the project, Rusia Petroleum, is owned by Interros financial holding (25.8%) and the local administration (11.2%).
