Abramovich's son makes €180m deal in Russia
An exploration company backed by the 20-year-old son of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has agreed a $180m deal to buy a gas and oil field in Russia.
UK-listed Zoltav is 40%-owned by Arkadiy Abramovich’s ARA Capital investment vehicle, its largest shareholder.
ARA is investing $42.5m as part of the deal to buy the Bortovoy licence in Saratov, western Russia, which contains a number of gas fields and a processing plant.
The site produced 16.8 billion cubic feet of gas last year and also has millions of barrels of oil reserves.
Zoltav’s executive chairman Symon Drake-Brockman said: “The Bortovoy licence will become Zoltav’s first producing asset. It is a well-located, cash-generative, producing field.”
The company already owns the Koltogor licence in Siberia, with probable reserves of more than 70 million barrels of oil, which it is looking to develop for commercial production.
It said it was continuing to review other oil and gas acquisition opportunities across the region, focused on Russia.
The deal is being seen as likely to help Arkadiy follow in the footsteps of his tycoon father.
