Rosneft gains relief from sanctions
Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, has received a new loan from Promsvyazbank to help it weather U.S. and European Union sanctions, and may yet get financial help from the Kremlin. Yet, the assistance doesn’t add up to the amount the state-owned oil company says it needs to pay its debts.
Vladislav Khokhlov, Promsvyazbank’s chief financial officer, said Aug. 26 that Rosneft got loans of an unspecified size from the Russian bank because it couldn’t get access to cash in the West.
The latest sanctions, imposed on July 16, sharply limit Russian oil companies’ access to Western loans at a time when Rosneft needs to refinance its large debt.
Meanwhile, Rosneft is exploring yet more ways to ease its financial burden. Moody’s reports that the company Rosneft and the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) have contracted to double the flow of Rosneft’s oil to China to 600,000 barrels per day between 2018 and 2037 in a deal worth $270 billion, with some prepayments from China.
The Norwegian energy giant Statoil said Aug. 25 that it plans to maintain its strategic partnership with Rosneft, sanctions or no sanctions.
The Rosneft-Statoil partnership, announced in May 2012, involves joint energy exploration initiatives in the Arctic and in East Asia, making it its third such partnership with a Western company after alliances with ExxonMobil of the United States and Eni of Italy.
Source: oilpricecom
