As it became known to Kommersant, Indian Oil India, one of the shareholders of the Vankorskoye oilfield Rosneft, and the Irish PetroNeft (a blocking package from ex-State Duma deputy Maxim Korobov) are selling their oil business in the Tomsk region. Since 2014, they have owned a parity stake in Stimul-T, which has invested $ 200 million in production in the region. However, due to the complex geology and the fall in oil prices, its economy was worse than expected. Now experts estimate Stimul-T at $ 100-150 million without taking into account the obligations.

Irish PetroNeft and India's state-owned Oil India have decided to sell the joint company Stimul-T, which is mining in the Tomsk region. About this "Kommersant" told two sources close to the buyers. While negotiations have not entered an active stage, says one of them. Stimul-T owns Linnyi, Arbuzovsky, Sibkraevsky, Tungolsky, Zapadno-Linny, Kondrashevsky, Severo-Varyakhsky, Emtorskoye fields with a total production of about 100 thousand tons of oil per year. The recoverable reserves according to the classification 2P - 12.6 million tons, 3P - 22 million tons. PetroNeft and Oil India did not respond to a request from Kommersant.

The main shareholders of PetroNeft - Natlata Partners (29.47%, belong to the former State Duma deputy Maxim Korobov), Daria Shaftelskaya (11.04%), broker J & E Davy (8.37%), Zhai Dumin (5.23%), American Ceres Environmental (3.39%), Ali Sobraliev (3.25%), general director of the company Dennis Francis (3.66%). The shares are traded on the London and Irish stock exchanges. Capitalization on the LSE - about £ 9 million.

When developing deposits, Stimul-T received lower production rates than expected. In addition, the company underestimated the gas factor, in order to comply with environmental standards, this required the construction of additional power capacities. Negative impact on the business had a fall in oil prices. In addition, in 2017, after unsuccessful drilling, the deadline for the Sibkraevskoye deposit was postponed. As Maxim Korobov said in May, now the extraction is carried out from drilled wells, and in the coming years the company wants to make this field "central".

Investments in the project amounted to about $ 200 million. The loss of WorldAce, through which Oil India and PetroNeft manage the oil company, in 2017 decreased by 25%, to $ 8.6 million, revenue increased by 16%, to $ 27.6 million. "Stimul-T "Forecasts an increase in production to 660 thousand tons within three years and a further increase to 1.5 million tons, one of Kommersant sources notes, while the additional resource potential is estimated at 43 million tons of oil.

Oil India received 50% in Stimul-T in 2014, paying PetroNeft $ 35 million, another $ 45 million were to go on the development of the asset for several years. Another $ 5 million Indians could pay as a bonus. Although the expectations of the Indians from the project did not materialize, they actually got an entrance ticket to the Russian oil industry. In 2016, Oil India, in a consortium with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Bharat PetroResources Ltd, received 23.9% of Vankorneft, one of Rosneft's largest assets, for $ 2 billion.

According to Andrei Polishchuk from Raiffeisenbank, given current reserves, the asset can be estimated on the basis of $ 1-1.5 per barrel, that is, approximately $ 100-150 million. The amount can be adjusted taking into account the readiness of the infrastructure, as well as the company's debts.

Oil production in the Tomsk region decreased by 7% in 2017, to 9.8 million tons, a significant part of the region's deposits are hard-to-recover reserves. Almost all large subsoil users are represented in the region, including Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Russneft. At the same time, Gazprom Neft is focusing on its strategy for developing hard-to-recover oil, and is also trying to attract foreign investors into its projects. In particular, the company agreed this year on the sale of 49% to the Arab Fund Mubadala in the local structure of Gazprom Neft-Vostok for $ 325 million.