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Gutseriev Back in the Oil Business
Two blocks on Mishovdag-Kelametdin and Padar-Harami oil deposits in Azerbaijan, containing 20 million tons, have been sold by the Canadian company Nations Petroleum Ltd. to GCM Global Energy, which has been linked with Mikhail Gutseriev. Gutseriev is the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Nations Petroleum owns about 85 percent of the consortium developing the Mishovdag and Kelamadtin deposits and about 85 percent of the operating company for the Padar and Harami deposits. The former produced 265,300 tons of oil in 2007 and the latter 1850 tons. Observers estimate that the deal cost $250-400 million. Global Energy, Inc. was founded in September 2007 by two companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. An Interfax source linked the company with Gutseriev, the former headof Rusneft, for whom an arrest warrant was issued in August 2007.
Azerbaijan has officially promised to turn Gutseriev over to Russia on request, should he be found there. Russneft opened an office in Baku last year and acquired a 50-percent share in AzEN, the consortium developing another block in Azerbaijan. A Russneft spokesman stated in October 2006 that that company was interested in buying the Kazakh asset Karazhanbasmunai from Nations Petroleum. That asset eventually went to the Chinese CITIC for $1.9 billion, however.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 26, 2008
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