RussiaÔÇÖs Gazprom has completed the $1.6 billion purchase of 51 per cent of SeverEnergia from Italian firms Eni and Enel.
 
SeverEnergia, which was owned 60 per cent by Eni and 40 per cent by Enel, is a consortium owning 100 per cent of Arcticgaz, Urengoil and Neftegaztechnologia, which hold gas and oil exploration and production licences for a total of five billion barrels of oil equivalent.
 
SeverEnergiaÔÇÖs operations are primarily focused in the western Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets. Around 90 per cent of RussiaÔÇÖs gas currently originates from the area.
Urengoil and Arcticgaz are assets that once belonged to RussiaÔÇÖs one-time largest oil producer, Yukos. They were auctioned off after the arrest of its billionaire owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003. SeverEnergia, which was then known as Enineftegaz, bought the assets at a 2007 auction.
With offices in Moscow, SeverEnergia is now the first Italian-Russian company active in exploration and production. Eni has already worked closely with Gazprom on the South Stream pipeline project that will supply Russian gas to south-eastern Europe.
 
Enel will receive $626.5 million from the sale and Eni the remainder. Their stakes in SeverEnergia will now be 19.6 per cent and 29.4 per cent respectively.
 
Gazprom has already paid $153.5 million to Enel and $230.3 million to Eni, with the rest due in March 2010.
 
SeverEnergia aims to pump its first gas from the Samburskoye field by June 2011, with output expected to reach 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2013.
The sale was originally agreed in April 2007.
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