MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian oil major Sibneft announced Wednesday that it had purchased a 75% stake in a company licensed to survey the Lopukhovsky section of the Sakhalin shelf in the Far East from the Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP.
The Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service approved the deal earlier.
Sibneft said its experts had drafted a program of further survey works that should be coordinated with the Natural Resources Ministry.
"If commercial hydrocarbon reserves are discovered [in the area], Sibneft is planning to get a license for the industrial development of the Lopukhovsky section," the company said in a press release.
The reserves of the Lopukhovsky section are estimated at 130 million metric tons of oil and 500 billion cu m of natural gas.
