Russia's Yukos oil firm will continue pumping oil until the end of September at the earliest, the beleaguered firm's chairman said yesterday, after another senior company executive had warned of impending bankruptcy under the weight of huge tax arrears.

But the outlook remained bleak at Russia's largest oil producer, after a major shipping firm said it would no longer transport Yukos oil on credit, and preliminary accounts showed that the company made a $2.65 billion loss in the first half of this year.

"I don't expect the company to have any problems producing, refining and selling oil until the end of September. What will happen when everyone comes back from holiday, I don't know," said Yukos chairman Mr Viktor Gerashchenko.

The former Russian Central Bank chief suggested a decision had been made at a senior political level to allow Yukos at least a stay of execution, as bailiffs siphon cash from its accounts and threaten to sell off its main production unit to cover a $3.4 billion (€2.75 billion) tax bill.

"Our internal sources tell us - and as you know there have been no state secrets for several years - there is an order to let Yukos fulfil all its internal and external contracts in the near term," Mr Gerashchenko said. His comments contradicted remarks by Yukos' chief financial officer, Mr Bruce Misamore, who told Monday's Financial Times that bailiffs were seizing cash at such a rate that the firm may have to file for bankruptcy within days.

Mr Gerashchenko insisted Russia would allow Yukos to keep pumping and so make the most of near-record oil prices.

In an interview with Reuters, he also said he hoped Yukos would be allowed to continue operating rather than being broken up and sold to a Kremlin-friendly buyer.

"The optimistic option is to keep the company functioning, probably once it has changed its shareholder structure."

Yukos came under attack alongside its main shareholder, Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who attracted the government's ire by criticising President Vladimir Putin and using his estimated $15 billion fortune to fund opposition parties.

Speculation increased that Yukos's main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, would be sold to state oil firm Rosneft after the head of the Federal Energy Agency said the company would raise its output from 4.5 per cent to 15-20 per cent of total Russian oil output.

A key ally of Mr Putin's became a Rosneft director earlier this month.