Russia to seal YUKOS's demise with Samara auction
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will bang the last nail into the coffin of YUKOS YUKO.RTS, once its top oil producer, by selling the bankrupt firm's Samara production unit and three nearby refineries in May with a starting price of $6 billion.
YUKOS's receiver Eduard Rebgun told Reuters on Friday the committee of creditors had decided to auction the production unit and refineries in a single lot.
The decision will reinforce market participants' expectations that state-controlled oil firm Rosneft (ROSN.MM) will buy the group of assets.
It took out a $22 billion credit at the start of the series of auctions, can influence the auction process as YUKOS's second biggest creditor and oil traders say it is already moving towards exclusive use of the three refineries.
The creditors' committee also decided to sell all of YUKOS's 1,135 petrol stations in a separate lot with a starting price of 7.7 billion roubles ($296.1 million).
Another lot would include YUKOS's Moscow property, including the firm's downtown skyscraper headquarters, for 22.7 billion roubles ($873.1 million), he said.
"In other words, YUKOS does not exist anymore," said a source close to the creditors' committee.
Rebgun declined to say whether he would call more auctions, but YUKOS's asset list featured no more big affiliates or companies which have yet to be sent for auction.
For a factbox on YUKOS's assets click on ID:nL06187537.
ON THE BLOCK, UNDER THE HAMMER
YUKOS's shareholders say the Kremlin deliberately and illegally destroyed it with a $27 billion back tax bill to punish its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky for political activities.
They say buying YUKOS's assets amounts to receiving stolen goods. Khodorkovsky is now serving an eight-year jail term in East Siberia.
The demise of YUKOS started in 2003 when, analysts say, President Vladimir Putin firmly decided to regain control in the energy sector and other strategic areas of the economy.
Rosneft has so far benefited most from YUKOS's destruction and is widely expected to win the Samara lot at a low price.
Rosneft already controls YUKOS's former top oil production unit Yugansk, which it bought in 2004 at a rock-bottom price.
Last week, it bought back a block of its own shares from YUKOS at auction at a discounted $7.6 billion.
This week, Italian energy firms Eni (ENI.MI) and Enel (ENEI.MI) won a $5.8 billion auction for one of YUKOS's top lots after agreeing to sell control of the assets to Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM).
The lot included a $4 billion stake in Gazprom's oil unit Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) and two gas production firms, Arcticgas and Urengoil.
Russia will auction off YUKOS's Tomsk unit, producing 220,000 barrels of oil per day, and two refineries on May 3.
Samara produces 200,000 bpd, while the three plants process 400,000 bpd. Rosneft badly needs refining assets after the purchase of Yugansk, which turned it into a world-class oil producer overnight.
The exact date of the Samara lot auction will be published on Saturday by the government official gazette, Rebgun said.
