BP announced this week that it would sell its 50% share in the TNK-BP joint venture to the Russian integrated oil and gas firm. The deal sees BP receive cash and shares in Rosneft and the firm plans to increase its stake in Rosneft to 19.75%.
John Dodd and Richard Hulf, the managers of the £107.1m fund, said Rosneft’s acquisition of TNK-BP is “one of the most strategic events for this period”.
The move will make Rosneft the world’s largest oil company and will see its 2P oil reserves swell to more than 60bn barrels. In addition, the firm’s production will be larger than that of Canada at over 4.5m barrels a day, Dodd noted.
“These are enormous numbers and we are so excited that we have started buying Rosneft,” Dodd revealed. “We think as a long-term investment Rosneft is very important strategic play given its position in Russia.”
Hulf added that buying Rosneft for the Artemis Global Energy Fund will give the portfolio exposure to the key eastern Siberia basin, which it previously lacked: “Although a lot of the TNK-BP assets are in western Siberia, there is a lot undeveloped stuff out far east and this gets us access to that.”
Buying Rosneft is the latest move in the fund’s portfolio after a number of changes to its oil and gas exploration holdings.
Last month, Dodd and Hulf started positions in Coastal Energy, Pancontinental and Gran Tierra and topped up existing holdings in Apache, MEG Energy and TransGlobe. They also sold Petrominerales, Bowleven and PT Energi Mega Persada.
