Moscow Court Freezes Yukos’ Main Assets

MOSCOW – A Moscow court has ordered the main assets still held by Yukos frozen in response to a lawsuit brought by the oil company’s former core production unit, piling more pressure on the shattered business.

State-run oil producer Rosneft, which now owns the Yuganskneftegaz unit, is claiming 163 billion rubles ($5.9 billion) from Yukos in damages, saying Yukos paid artificially low prices for crude supplies from the oil-pumping facility.

“We are aware of the ruling,” Yukos spokesman Yevgeny Fokin said Tuesday, adding that he did not have details of the court decision.

The Moscow Arbitration Court issued the ruling, which bars Yukos from disposing of shares in its major remaining subsidiaries – including its top two oil production units Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz and its main refinery, Angarsk – on April 5, the Interfax news agency said.

The shares being frozen does not affect Yukos’ day-to-day production operations or its bank accounts.

Shares in the Yukos-owned companies were already frozen under a separate court decision enforcing collection of multibillion dollar tax claims against the fallen Yukos oil empire.

But some market watchers saw the latest court ruling as a sign that Yukos’ end is nearing, as the combination of the damages and tax bills could drive it out of business.

“This could see Yuganskneftegaz become the second largest creditor after the Russian government,” said Oleg Maximov, an oil and gas analyst from the Troika brokerage in Moscow.

“Yukos could either be carved up among its creditors under bankruptcy proceedings or its main assets could be auctioned off like Yuganskneftegaz,” he said.

The Moscow arbitration court is due to examine the damages claim next month.

Yuganskneftegaz, the former crown jewel in the Yukos empire, was sold off in a disputed auction in December against Yukos’ $28 billion back-tax bills. The 1 million-barrel-a-day unit was eventually bought by Rosneft.

The acquisition of Yukos’ main oil unit catapulted Rosneft into the ranks of the top five Russian oil producers and stripped Yukos of about 60 percent of its oil production capacity.

The oil company, once the top Russian oil producer, has been under an onslaught from the state that observers have linked to the political ambitions of its jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He is awaiting an April 27 verdict in his trial on fraud and tax evasion and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Rosneft alleges that the unit’s former owners mismanaged the facility and are also pressing for Yukos to pay the $5.1 billion that Russia’s tax authorities say Yuganskneftegaz owes.