Chevron buys Reliance's 80 pc stake in two blocks in Kurdistan
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US oil behemoth Chevron Corp on Thursday said it has bought Reliance Industries' 80 per cent stake in two oil blocks in Kurdistan region of Iraq for an undisclosed amount.
RIL's exit from Rovi and Sarta onland blocks in northern Iraq is part of the company's overseas asset restructuring wherein it is cutting exposure in exploration blocks to focus on producing properties.
The company had in 2007 paid a signing amount of USD 15.5-17.5 million to autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) for the two blocks that were believed to hold one billion barrels of oil reserves.
RIL may have got about USD 200 million from Chevron from the stake sale. In a statement, Chevron said its subsidiaries have completed a transaction to acquire interests in two blocks.
"Chevron will acquire Reliance Exploration & Production DMCC's 80 per cent interest and operatorship of the production sharing contracts (PSCs) covering the Rovi and Sarta blocks. The blocks are located north of Erbil and cover a combined area of approximately 490 square miles (1,124 square kilometres)," it said.
Austria's OMV AG holds the remaining 20 per cent interest in the two blocks. After the exit from Kurdistan, RIL now is left with a portfolio of 11 overseas oil and gas assets including two in Peru, three in Yemen (one producing and two exploratory), two each in Oman, and Colombia, one each in East Timor and Australia.
When it signed the agreement for Rovi and Sarta with KRG, RIL faced being blacklisted by the Iraqi government, which said the award of blocks was not approved by it. RIL was not qualified for participation in bidding rounds for lucrative oil fields by Iraq.
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