The company's press release received by RIA Novosti reads that "the purpose of the restructuring effort is to ensure the company's uninterrupted production activity and the fulfillment of the company's obligations to its employees, partners, creditors and shareholders."
According to the press release, the OOO Yukos-Moskva, the NK Yukos' managing company, is to be abolished and its personnel to be transferred to the ZAO Yukos RM.
The company is to be divided into two subsidiaries - Yukos EP (Exploration and Production) and Yukos RM (Refining and Marketing).
Yukos EP is to deal with prospecting operations and oil production, with Viktor Grekhov appointed as the company's acting president. Yukos RM will be responsible for oil refining and marketing, with Anatoly Nazarov put in charge of the new company. Both companies will be governed by their boards of directors.
"It is expected that Yury Beilin, who will keep the post of NK Yukos' vice-president, will head the board of directors of Yukos EP, while Steven Theede, NK Yukos' president, will chair the board of directors of Yukos RM," the press release continues.
The press release quotes Theede as saying that the company's top managers will preserve their responsible and realistic approach to the task of managing the oil company. In his opinion, the company's structure must be changed to testify to the fact that Yukos still remains a major oil company, though a smaller one.
According to the press release, the main management functions and the structure of the company's head office will be rationalized with due regard for Yukos' smaller size after the sale of the OAO Yuganskneftegaz, the company's key production facility, in 2004.
An executive committee of the board of directors has been set up to coordinate the activities between the president's apparatus and the NK Yukos' board of directors. Bernard Loze, a board's member, will chair the board. The executive committee will be directly responsible for the formation of boards of directors at NK Yukos' production subsidiaries.
