UPDATE2: Russian govt yet to form terms to clear Schlumberger deal

(Adds details in last three paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Mar 27 (PRIME) -- Russian authorities have not completed a full list of conditions to present to Schlumberger before clearance of its acquisition of 45.65% in Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC), Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters Friday.

On Thursday, a representative of the company said that Schlumberger has not yet received an official letter with clearance of the deal from Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service.

“We are waiting for arrival of an official request from the Federal Antimonopoly Service, to which we will react accordingly,” the representative said.

The government’s commission on foreign investment control needs 10 more days to discuss conditions of the deal with Schlumberger. The company will be obliged to sell the stake in EDC to Russian investors in case further sanctions against the country block its operations, the antimonopoly service’s director Igor Artemyev said earlier Thursday.

The ministry will ask the company to retain shelf development pace, Donskoi said. “(We need) to avoid losses if sanctions keep on scaling up, to avoid pace decline (of shelf works) due to Eurasia’s registration under Schlumberger jurisdiction if the decision is made,” he said.

Russia’s Federal Antitrust Service plans to start discussion of conditions for the deal with Schlumberger within a weak, Armen Khanyan, head of the service’s department for foreign investment control, told PRIME Friday.

“All conditions that can be made public were previously announced by the service’s Director Igor Artemyev…I think that it will be wrong to make other conditions public. We plan to start their discussion in the next seven days,” Khanyan said.

Schlumberger, global oil services giant, plans to buy the stake for U.S. $1.7 billion or $22 per share.

End