YUKOS TO SELL MAZEIKIU NAFTA SHARES

MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - With its back taxes hitting $7.5 billion, Yukos is urgently looking for more money to pay the debt. Two high-level sources close to the company have told Vedomosti that Yukos is negotiating sales of 53.6% of shares in the Lithuanian-based oil complex, Mazeikiu Nafta. Yukos purchased 26.8% of Mazeikiu Nafta's shares in 2001 for $75 million and provided a $75 million loan to the concern for five years. A year later, Yukos bought another 26.8% of the concern's shares for $85 million. These assets have not been arrested, as Mazeikiu Nafta's shares are not directly owned by Yukos, the source said.

Stephen Dashevsky, Atona chief analyst, believes Surgutneftegaz does not have enough oil refining capacities and LUKoil will be the most likely potential purchasers. The analyst recalls that LUkoil was in talks over oil deliveries for the Mazeikiu oil refinery five years ago, and now the company has ambitious plans to extract oil on the Baltic shelf.

"It will all depend on the price that Yukos offers," a LUKoil manager said. "We believe that Yukos bought this plant for too high a price - nearly $800-900 million, including debts and investment." A Surgutneftegaz representative declined to comment. The Lithuanian government does not know anything yet about Yukos's plans to sell Mazeikiu Nafta's shares, Sauljus Specjus, the Lithuanian prime minister's adviser, told Vedomosti.