MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. A company owned by the Russian government has acquired Rosneft’s assets in Venezuela, the cabinet’s press office told TASS on Saturday.

"The government of the Russian Federation has acquired assets in Venezuela from Rosneft. A company 100% owned by the Russian Federation has become the owner," the press service said.

Rosneft confirmed the statement, saying that in return it would get a 9.6% share of its equity capital as a settlement payment.

"Today Rosneft concluded an agreement with the company 100% owned by the Government of Russian Federation, to sell all of its interest and cease participation in its Venezuelan businesses, including joint ventures of Petromonagas, Petroperija, Boqueron, Petromiranda and Petrovictoria, as well as oil-field services companies, commercial and trading operations," the company said.

As a result of the concluded agreement all assets and trading operations of Rosneft in Venezuela and/or connected with Venezuela will be "disposed of, terminated or liquidated."

"The concluded transaction and the sale of assets will result in Rosneft receiving as a settlement payment a 9.6% share of Rosneft’s equity capital that will be held by a 100% subsidiary of Rosneft and accounted for as treasury stock," Rosneft said.

Company spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told TASS Rosneft expects US sanctions against its subsidiaries to be lifted soon.

"As a publicly listed international company, we made this decision based on interests of our shareholders. And we indeed have all grounds to expect US regulators to honor their publicly made promises," the spokesman said

The Russian government, through its holding company Rosneftegaz, owns the controlling stake (50% plus one share) in Rosneft.

On February 18, the US Administration Washington introduced sanctions against Rosneft Trading, S.A and its President Didier Casimiro linked to sales of oil from Venezuela. Washington granted 90 days to Rosneft Trading to complete its transactions. The sanctions against Rosneft Trading, S.A. do not apply to the parent company.

On March 12, the United States announced it was imposing sanctions on Rosneft’s subsidiary, TNK Trading International SA.

Rosneft, once a major investor in Venezuela, implemented several joint exploration and production projects with Venezuela’s PDVSA oil company. According to Rosneft, the total geological reserves under these projects were estimated at 20.5 bln tonnes of oil. Rosneft and its Venezuelan partners also had an oil field service joint venture, Perforosven.