Alliance Oil will hold a 51 percent stake and contribute in the Volga-Urals region while Repsol, with 49 percent, will make a cash investment to finance future projects, the groups said.
The joint venture will concentrate on exploration and production projects and is subject to final negotiations on contractual terms, due diligence and regulatory approval.
“It is hoped these can be obtained before the end of 2011,” Repsol said in a joint statement.
Repsol already owns a 3.47 percent stake in Alliance Oil after the merger between Alliance and West Siberian Resources in 2008.
Alliance Oil’s main assets are in Russia and Kazakhstan. It controls the Khabarovsk oil refinery in Russia’s far east with annual crude throughput of 4 million tons, owns 24 tank farms and more than 250 pump stations in far-east regions.
Alliance Oil is controlled by the Bazhaev family and is part of OAO Alliance group, founded in 1998 by Zia Bazhaev, a Chechen businessman.
Repsol, Spain’s largest oil company, also owns a 74.9 percent stake in Eurotek-Yugra, which holds exploration and production licences in the Karabashsky-1 and -2 blocks in the prolific West-Siberia basin.
Repsol and KazMunaiGas (KMG) will jointly explore the Adai oil block in the Atyrau region in western Kazakhstan, KMG said on Friday.
The agreements come as Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero conducts an official visit to Kazakhstan and Russia.
