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 Surgutneftegaz
made its first move on foreign markets this week with a surprise
deal to buy 21 percent of MOL oil group.
OMV said it would sell its 21.2 percent stake in MOL to Surgut,
Russia's fourth-biggest oil producer, for 1.4 billion euros ($1.88
billion), which equates to 19,212 forints ($84.95) per share, more than
double the prevailing market price of 9,940 forints. Trading in MOL's
shares was suspended before the market opened in Budapest last Monday.
It was an unexpected move by a Russian oil company which had not shown
any foreign ambitions while other Russian oil and mining giants,
encouraged by the state, deployed the proceeds of the commodities boom
to buy companies around the world.
"This is extremely out of character with Surgut's management. In the
past they have been extremely reluctant to acquire assets abroad,
especially minority stakes in a foreign refiner," said Ron Smith, head
of research at Alfa Bank.
Surgut, a company seen as loyal to the state, has invested little
of an accumulated cash pile thought to stand at $19 billion at the end
of September 2008.
Another non-state oil company, LUKOIL, has refining assets in Romania
and Bulgaria, and carried the flag into Western Europe last year with a
deal to buy into Italian oil refiner ERG . It backed away from the
potential acquisition of a stake in Repsol.
The acquisition of a stake in MOL, whose interests are concentrated in
Hungary and Slovakia. Amid calls for Europe to diversify its gas supply
away from Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas and will
ship up to 33 percent by 2020, Russia this month won support from
Hungary for its new South Stream gas pipeline that would bypass Ukraine
(See PetrolWorld ).
Surgut, which is a large exporter of crude and a mid-sized producer of
gas, said the acquisition would help it move downstream, since MOL's
strength is in refining and marketing.
Surgut has a foothold in Europe's market for refined fuels through
exports from its giant Kirishi refinery, Russia's largest exporter of
fuels, near the Baltic Sea coast outside St Petersburg.
"The acquisition of a stake in MOL is an important step toward
fulfilment of Surgutneftegaz's strategy to strengthen vertical
integration and achieve maximum proximity to end users," Surgut said.
PetrolWorld 300309
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