MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - A deal through which Gazprom will buy the operator of the Kovykta gas condensate field in East Siberia from TNK-BP for around $1 billion will be closed in the near future, the Russian company said on Tuesday.
The only remaining issues are "mere technical nuances", Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.
The Kovykta deal is part of an agreement signed between Gazprom, Britain's BP, and Russian-British TNK-BP in June 2007.
Under the agreement, Gazprom is to buy a 62.8% stake in Rusia Petroleum, the operator of East Siberia's largest gas deposit. 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.
TNK-BP deputy chief executive Alister Ferguson also said the deal was likely to be closed very soon, despite the ongoing conflict between Russian and British shareholders in the joint oil venture.
