On Thursday, Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin had told reporters that his company was considering purchasing the stake of Lukoil in its joint venture based in Venezuela. Sechin said, "If we see an intention to sell, of course, we will hold talks and work on the possibility of increasing Rosneft's stake."
Lukoil is the second biggest oil producer in Russia. It had expressed its intention earlier to sell its ownership stake in a consortium in Venezuela as it was not their priority at the moment. The Venezuelan consortium, or the Junin-6, was developing a large project focused on oil in the Orinico basin.
The Junin-6 joint venture was led by state-firm Rosneft and counts Gazprom Neft as one of the members. Rosneft, owned by the government of Russia, is the largest public traded oil company. Its headquarters is situated just near the iconic Kremlin building in Moscow. It had recently completed a strategic acquisition of TNK-BP, a vertically integrated oil company.
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