MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti political commentator Peter Lavelle). Is Gazprom trying to bankrupt what is left of Yukos in order to out-maneuver Rosneft?
The confusing story of a Gazprom exploration services subsidiary attempting to do this have caught market watchers off their guard. Gazprom denies any attempt to destabilize Yukos. Nonetheless, the mere possibility of a new attack on what was once Russia's largest privately-owned oil company demonstrates that competition in Russia's oil patch remains fierce.
Yukos has been mired in problems for a long time. But potential attempts to bankrupt the beleaguered oil company are new. According to stories published by The Moscow Times and the business daily Vedomosti, Yukos has apparently received notification from Gazprom's exploration subsidiary, Orenburggeofizika, of a bankruptcy suit filed with the Moscow Arbitration Court.
Orenburggeofizika is reportedly demanding the paltry sum of $60,000 from Yukos for exploration services that Gazprom's subsidiary provided for the oil company back in 2003. In its legal brief, Orenburggeofizika reportedly said it would rescind its bankruptcy suit should Yukos voluntarily pay off the debt.
Vedomosti cited Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov as claiming that no such suit had or would be filed. Thus, and until more information comes to light, it appears that Orenburggeofizika's management filed their claim against Yukos without authorization from its parent company. Yukos is confronted with far larger claims from other parties, and state-owned Gazprom's archrival Rosneft is first in line.
It is the timing of this latest round of legal woes surrounding Yukos that has surprised market watchers most. Since the forced detachment and sell-off of Yukos' primary production unit Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos and Group Menatep have refrained from threatening legal action against banks and companies involved with any of their former assets: the recent Rosneftegaz loan is a good example of this. The second factor surprising the market is that there have been few follow-up actions by the tax authorities or the courts to force additional assets from Yukos. Several court actions to consider the legality of claims against Yukos have been delayed, and the drive to pursue these claims appears to have dissipated. The lack of a ruling on Yugansk's back-tax bill for 2001 today appears to confirm this trend.
In theory, if Gazprom or a related entity were to suddenly initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Yukos, it would certainly derail Rosneft's plans to capture Yukos' remaining production units (Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz), and thwart its overall production expansion goals.
Bankrupting Yukos would also lead to a very long legal nightmare in which management would be transferred to a court-appointed administrator, while creditors (Western banks and Group Menatep) would be accorded a considerable legal say during any proceedings.
For Rosneft, bankrupting Yukos would be painful in a different and material way. Its new subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz, acquired last December, continues to seek compensation from its former parent company totaling as much as $11 billion. To make matters worse, Yukos still has around $10.4 billion in outstanding back-tax obligations to the government.
It is inconceivable that the Kremlin would allow Yukos to go bankrupt for just $60,000 when it still owes billions to the state. Nonetheless, this strange story highlights just how volatile Russia's oil patch is, with the collateral damage created by the Yukos affair, and the competing interests of Gazprom and Rosneft.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.
