The deal was signed on October 15 last year in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Goa on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. The sale involves the Ruias almost exiting its cash cow in favour of Russian giant Rosneft and a consortium led by Trafigura-UCP. "The joint lenders forum of 23 lenders, led by SBI and ICICI, met here this morning and approved and authorised the release of shares of Essar Oil to facilitate the stake sale to Rosneft and the investment consortium headed by Trafigura and UCP," the company source told PTI. It can be noted that Igor Sechin, the chief executive of Rosneft, had told the company at its AGM yesterday that the transaction could be "considered as closed". Watch this also: Essar Oil operates a 20 million tonne refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, and the deal also involves transferring its over 3,500 oil retail outlets.