Hess Corp. has announced the sale o5 f its Russian unit, Samara-Nafta, to LUKOIL for $2.05 billion as activist investors besiege the company for a business change.

Samara-Nafta is a producer of 50,000 oil barrels a day and headquarters in the Volga-Urals region. Hess currently holds 90 percent stake in the unit and expects a $1.8 billion of tax after tax proceeds.

Hess shareholder hedge fund Elliott Management, with 4.39% share, wanted the company to make changes since January following the launch of a company to seat five new board directors. .

Recently, Hess revealed that it is aiming to exit its retail gasoline, trading and marketing businesses.

John Hess, the company's chief executive, said in a statement that they will be returning capital to shareholders by using most of the future proceeds from the rest of its current asset sale.