ONGC Videsh (and its wholly owned subsidiary  ONGC Videsh Vankorneft Pte. Ltd., Singapore - OVVL)  jointly signed  definitive agreements with Rosneft, the national oil company of Russia for  acquiring additional 11% shares in JSC Vankorneft, a company organized under  the law of Russian Federation which is the owner of Vankor Field and North Vankor  license. Earlier, ONGC Videsh had successfully  closed the acquisition of 15% shareholding interest on 31st May,  2016. After the closing of the present transaction, ONGC Videsh will raise its  participation share in Vankorneft to 26%. The acquisition is subject to relevant Board, Government and Indian and  Russian regulatory approvals and is expected to close by end of 2016.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Narendra K. Verma, CEO & Managing  Director,on behalf of ONGC Videsh and Mr. Igor Sechin,Chairman Board of Directors, Rosneft in Moscow on 14th September,2016.

Vankor is Rosneft's (and Russia's) second largest field by production  and accounts for 4% of Russian production. The daily production from the field is around 421,000 bpd of crude oil  on an average and together with earlier acquisition of 15%, ONGC Videsh’s share  of daily oil production from Vankor will be about 110,000 bpd. The acquisition of additional 11 % bears significant  strategic importance and would add about 30% to the existing ONGC Videsh’s  production at the current rate and approximately 2.2 MMt of oil and 1.0 BCM of gas annually.

The present transaction  provides an opportunity to ONGC Videsh to enhance its presence in Russia and is  consistent with its stated strategic objective of adding high quality  international assets to its existing E&P portfolio.This acquisition also  has significant strategic importance to India, both in terms of augmentation of  India’s Energy Security as well as enhancing India’s stature in the global  political and economic arenas.

About ONGC Videsh

ONGC Videsh is a wholly owned subsidiary of  Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the National Oil Company of India,  and is India's largest international oil and gas E&P Company. At present,ONGC Videsh has 37 projects in 17 countries including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh,  Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Myanmar, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan,  Venezuela, Vietnam and New Zealand. ONGC Videsh is currently producing about 215,000  barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas per day and has total oil and gas  reserves of about 596 MMTOE as on 31st March, 2016. For more  information visit: http://www.ongcvidesh.com 

About ONGC

ONGC's market capitalization as on 14th  September 2016, was INR 2123 billion (US$ 31.7 billion). During the financial  year ended 31st March, 2016, ONGC Group had produced 57.38 MMT of  oil and oil equivalent gas (MMTOE) (approx. 1.2 MMboe per day); the Consolidated  Gross Turnover was INR 1,429 billion (US$ 21.83 billion) during FY’16 and total  oil and gas reserves were 2,022 MMTOE as on 31st March 2016. For  more information visit: http://www.ongcindia.com