RusEnergy

MOSCOW, January 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian oil company, Alliance, and Sweden's West Siberian Resources announced on Tuesday their plans to merge to form a vertically integrated company. Alliance and West Siberian signed on January 15 a memorandum of understanding to create a leading independent oil company with a mix of upstream and downstream businesses in key oil-producing regions in Russia. Under the merger agreements that the parties intend to sign, Alliance will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of West Siberian. Alliance, which runs an oil refinery in the Russian Far East, and West Siberian, which develops oil deposits in west Siberia, will together own proven and probable oil reserves of 430 million barrels, with a production capacity of about 51,000 bpd and a refining output of 70,000 bpd as well as 255 filling stations. The companies said in a joint statement that their combined market capitalization would amount to $2.5 billion, while revenues for the first nine months of 2007 were estimated at $1.4 billion.