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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 02:50 GMT | more >>

Rosneft hands off Tomskneft stake



By Upstream staff 

Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft has sold 50% of former Yukos production unit Tomskneft to state-owned Vnesheconombank for an undisclosed sum, the company said today.

Rosneft bought Tomskneft, Yukos's 230,000-barrels-per-day East-Siberian unit, at a state-forced auction to sell the bankrupt Yukos's assets in May.

A Rosneft spokesman declined to disclose the terms of the deal with the bank, Reuters reported.

"The proceeds from the sale of 50% shares in Tomskneft will allow Rosneft to complete earlier announced deals without increasing its current debt," the company said in a statement.

Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov said last week the company planned to slash its debt to $15 billion by 2010 from $25 billion now, and might sell some non-core assets bought during the Yukos auctions.

Rosneft, which at the start of 2007 had debts of $13 billion, has since raised a further $22 billion loan from a consortium of international banks to help finance the purchase of the bankrupt company's assets.

It repaid some of the debt last week, when it received $9.2 billion owed to it by Yukos, once Russia's top oil company, whose assets have been sold to make up for its debt of over $26 billion.


Monday, 02 July, 2007, 17:16 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 02 July, 2007, 17:16 GMT

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