RusEnergy

25 July 2007 - Upstream OnLine - A Russian court has postponed the last in a set of hearings that could hand the state full control over $7 billion of Bashkir oil assets by ousting regional players from six energy companies. Today the Moscow Arbitration Court rescheduled to 15 August a hearing into the last of four key suits by the Federal Tax Service against one of the current owners of the Bashkir oil assets, due to the absence of an arbitration judge. But with two suits already upheld by the court and a hearing into the third suit set for 31 July, the Kremlin may bring the assets back under its control as early as the middle of next month, further strengthening its grip over the energy industry. "State consolidation of oil and gas assets is continuing, and the Bashkir energy sector won't escape a takeover," Alexander Razuvayev of Sobinbank told Reuters. "We think the assets will be divided between state companies with the biggest part to go to Rosneft." The assets include mid-sized oil producer Bashneft, refineries Novoil, Ufimsky, Ufaorgsintez and Ufaneftekhim and retailer Bashkirnefteproduct . Bashneft produces 240,000 barrels per day. The assets were initially controlled by the government of the region in the Urals, on behalf of the Russian Federation, but they have changed hands many times in the past few years. Owners have included companies close to Ural Rakhimov, son of veteran Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov, although the current ultimate beneficiaries are unknown. At present the owners are four companies - Agidel-Invest, Inzer-Invest, Yuryuzan-Invest and Ural-Invest - which each own around 15% in each of the six Bashkir companies. The tax service has sued all the investment companies, saying all transactions involving shares were null and void, and earlier this month it won suits against Yuryuzan and Ural, which must now return the shares to the state. The hearing into Inzer will take place on 31 July and will be followed by the hearing into Agidel on 15 August. One of Russia's two leading bourses, RTS, halted all transactions in Bashkir oil shares on Tuesday, and analysts say trading is unlikely to resume before the suits are over. Apart from the firms being sued, diversified conglomerate Sistema has around 25 percent in each of the Bashkir oil firms. "We see the suspension as negative for minorities in the short term as they will be unable to trade stocks for an indefinite period of time. Most likely trading will be interrupted until law enforcement proceedings have finished," Alfa-Bank said in a research note on Wednesday.