India Intent on Yugansk Stake
India's oil and gas minister will arrive in Moscow later this month to discuss the possibility of buying a 15 percent stake in Yuganskneftegaz from Rosneft, an Indian newspaper reported Wednesday, citing the minister.
The Times of India reported that Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will travel to Moscow on Feb. 21 to get a final answer on whether India's state-owned energy company, ONGC, will be allowed to buy a minority stake in what was once Yukos' biggest asset.
"The door is still open and there is no full stop," Aiyar was quoted as saying. "We are still interested [in taking equity] and we haven't given up hopes yet."
While ONGC reportedly received the Indian government's approval to bid for a 15 percent stake in Yugansk for $2 billion last month, Aiyar's visit adds a geopolitical twist to the cocktail of conflicting statements swirling around Rosneft's controversial purchase of Yugansk, which the government auctioned off in December to recoup part of Yukos' towering tax debt.
Two sources in the Indian Embassy said they knew of the minister's trip but would not comment on the purpose of the meeting.
A Rosneft spokesman said the company has close relations with ONGC, Oil and Natural Gas Corp., but that he was unaware of any concrete plans for Yugansk. The Industry and Energy Ministry could not confirm the visit.
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The obscure financing of the Yugansk purchase is the target of a host of legal threats and at the center of a bitter fight within the Kremlin over the reorganization of some of the country's prime oil assets.
A $6 billion loan from Chinese banks to Rosneft via Vneshekonombank came to light last week, but ministers and Rosneft denied the loan was connected with the purchase of Yugansk.
Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov told Kommersant this week that the acquisition was financed with funds from asset sales to Gazprom, cash and borrowing from a consortium of Russian banks, which he declined to name.
When Rosneft bought shell company Baikal Finance Group, which won the auction for Yugansk, the state-owned oil company was already heavily indebted.
Bogdanchikov said last week that Yukos shareholders should pay back $5 billion of Yugansk's tax debts, which on Wednesday shrunk by $320 million after a Moscow court reportedly canceled a 1999 claim.
Rosneft is also facing $1.4 billion in liabilities from loans that were guaranteed by Yugansk.
Yukos has threatened legal action against any participant in the sale, financing or purchase of Yugansk. Legal action the oil major initiated in Houston has cast a shadow over the planned merger of Rosneft and Gazprom.
The merger is part of a transaction that would allow the state to gain formal control of Gazprom, the first step to liberalizing the gas giant's share market.
Big money is betting on the removal of the limits, and investors have said the gas giant could become one of the most important companies in emerging markets.
Yet the liabilities surrounding Rosneft's newest unit, Yugansk, have caused officials to issue a plethora of often contradictory announcements, convincing investors of a high-stakes political battle behind the scenes.
"At the moment this question is in the stage of detailed discussion and I hope that in the near future a decision on the model will be taken," Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Thursday, Interfax reported. Gref, a Gazprom board member, added that a final decision has not yet been made.
Boris Fyodorov, also a Gazprom director, told Bloomberg this week that the merger has been delayed by the dispute over Yugansk. "You can see there is a fight," he said.
"[Gazprom CEO Alexei] Miller is likely to achieve his goal, but so far there is a fight," Fyodorov said. "We should only take over Rosneft, why would we need Yugansk?"
Fyodorov said he would resign from the board if restrictions on trading Gazprom stock weren't lifted before the June annual general meeting.
The Kremlin is insisting that everything is on track.
In response to reporters' questions about the liberalization of Gazprom, Arkady Dvorkovich, the head of the presidential administration's Department of Experts, said Wednesday: "The position has not changed."
"Once the state has control there is no point having a liberalization without removing limits," on foreign ownership, he said.
themoscowtimes.com