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Trans Naft Pushed Away from YUKOS
The auction for the 20-percent share in Gazprom Neft and all of Artikgaz and Urengoil, all belonging to YUKOS, takes place today. Four companies paid the $1.1-billion deposit required to take part in it – Rosneft affiliate Nefttreidgrupp, Gazprombank (RMC Kyoto), the Italian Eni and independent natural gas trader Trans Nafta. The last-named company withdrew its application yesterday. At Trans Nafta, they say that the decision was made after consultations with investment funds.
“Our investors' lawyers gave a negative assessment of the expediency of acquiring the given lot,” Trans Nafta general director Sergey Stepanov told Kommersant. TNK-BP had similar experience after participating in the auction for the first lot of YUKOS property to backup Rosneft.
Industry observers are unconvinced however. They see no grounds for the company to withdraw its application. “This look more like pressure on the independent trader from the monopoly or state enforcement structures to eliminate the risk losing control of the asset in the bidding,” suggested BrokerCreditService analyst Maxim Shein.
“No one will take on such high financial risks” without the agreement of Gazprom, according to MDM Bank analyst Andrey Gromadin. “The monopoly has to accept the natural gas from Artikgaz and Urengoil into the gas trunk pipeline.” If Gazprom is not satisfied with Rosneft's behavior at the auction, Gromadin noted, it can participate in bidding for other YUKOS oil production and refining assets later and compete with Rosneft.
Eni head Paolo Scaroni has stated repeatedly that the company is interested in YUKOS gas assets. If Rosneft's participation in the auction will be only nominal, only Gazprom and Eni are left among the competitors. It is possible that Gazprombank will act in the interests of Eni.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 04, 2007
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