The Russian government gave gas monopoly Gazprom the green light to bid for the key unit of oil major YUKOS today as talks continued between Gazprom and Western lenders on a huge financing package.
Analysts said the world's largest gas firm may already be looking beyond the December 19th auction of Yuganskneftegaz and could buy more assets of the stricken YUKOS next year given that it is considering Russia's biggest ever corporate loan of up to €10 billion.
"It is interesting that Gazprom is attracting significantly more than the Yuganskneftegas auction starting price of $8.9 billion," said Mr Scott Semet of MDM bank.
"Possibly, Gazprom is borrowing not only for Yugansk but for other YUKOS assets, which could be sold to cover the tax claims".
The management of Gazprom said last week it wanted to buy Yugansk in a move that analysts said would effectively help the Kremlin reclaim a huge share of the nation's oil riches.
The state wants to sell Yugansk, which pumps 60 per cent of YUKOS's total output of 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), in its pursuit of back-tax claims totalling $26 billion.
The tax troubles of Russia's top oil exporter are widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Kremlin to punish the company's founder Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky for political activities.
Mr Khodorkovsky, who is now on trial for tax evasion and fraud, has repeatedly offered to give up his shares in the company but his approaches have been spurned by the Kremlin.
The decision by Gazprom's management to bid for Yugansk had to be approved by its state-controlled board of directors as extra borrowing would require changing the investment programme of the firm, whose $15-billion debt is already the largest among Russian companies.