OREANDA-NEWS. July 4, 2011. JSC  NK “RusNeft” declares disposition of its subsidiary refinery- JSC  “Orsknefteorgsintez” in the Orenburg Region. The refinery was purchased by foreign investors.

The decision to sell the refinery was made by shareholders of the Company within the frames of implementation of development strategy of NK “RussNeft” approved by the Board of Directors in December 2010 and is caused by the necessity to reduce the debt load of the Holding. The proceeds from the sale will be assigned for redemption of a part of the loan obligations of NK “RussNeft”. The obligations to banks contemplate full redemption of the debt in 2017. 

Disposition of the refinery will permit to focus on implementation of the development strategy of the Holding. Its main trends are: increase of crude hydrocarbons production, geological exploration, development of gas projects. Thus, this year the Company intends to achive the production level of 13.600 million tons, and in 2012 – 14.800 million tons and by 2018 to have reached 18 million tons.

This being the case, even in the current year the volume of investments will amount to 14 billion rubles, of which 10 billion rubles will be assigned for drilling, 1 billion rubles – for construction of a pipeline in the Tyumen Region and about 3 billion rubles will be spent for gas utilization projects. Besides, the Company’s development strategy contemplates increment of reserves up to 1 billion tons by 2017, at the account of purchasing new oilfields, implementation of geological exploration programs and more precise determination of the structure of reserves within the boundaries of license areas of the Holding.