ConocoPhillips Sells Stake in JV with Rosneft, Exits Russia

Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas producer ConocoPhillips has sold its 50 percent stake in a joint venture with Russian state oil company Rosneft, a ConocoPhillips spokesman said.

The exit from Russia comes about five years after ConocoPhillips sold its biggest sole asset in Russia, a stake in Lukoil, for $9.5 billion. (http://reut.rs/1QI1Otz)

ConocoPhillips was left with the Polar Lights JV in Russia after it sold a 30 percent interest in another joint venture to partner Lukoil in 2012.

The Financial Times reported the stake sale on Tuesday. (http://on.ft.com/1QHYv5Q)

ConocoPhillips spokesman Kris Sava said the company sold its stake to Trisonnery Asset Ltd.

Rosneft also sold its stake in the Polar Lights joint venture last week, in a deal that valued the business at about $150 million-$200 million, the FT reported citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

The joint venture had been bought by a company owned by the Khotin family in Russia, the FT reported, citing a person familiar with the deal.

Total oil production at the Polar Lights JV has been falling, and was at 8,200 barrels per day last year. This represents 0.5 percent of 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in total production reported by ConocoPhillips that year. (Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)