Dewey & LeBoeuf has advised ONGC Videsh Ltd. (“OVL”), the international projects arm of India’s national oil & gas company, on a strategic new partnership to develop a block in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea.
The project involves the Satpaev block, which has estimated oil reserves of about 1.6 billion barrels, and will be developed in partnership with Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas. OVL is to get a 25 percent field stake. Total exploration period costs may be up to US$400 million. Assuming an attractive commercial discovery, full field development costs could be in the billions of dollars.
Moscow-based partner Jon Hines, head of the Dewey & LeBoeuf’s CIS region energy practice, comments: “This has been an exciting and high stakes project, with a good deal of attention from senior officials in both the Indian and Kazakh governments. It is very much within our area of specialization and fits in alongside a number of major oil & gas projects we are working on in the CIS region for other state-owned and private energy clients.”
The suite of deal documents were signed on April 16 by the two companies’ CEOs, in the presence of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbaev, during a state visit in Astana. The agreement follows more than four years of negotiations and provides access to crucial resources for energy-starved India.
Partner Jon Hines led the Dewey & LeBoeuf team with Almaty counsel Klara Nurgazieva. They were assisted by Almaty associates Adirbekov Bauyrzhan and Asem Sarsembayeva and several others in the firm’s Almaty, Moscow and London offices.
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