BEIJING, March 22 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Yefimov) - Chinese companies are interested in buying Rosneft shares when the Russian state-owned energy major goes public this summer, the company's CEO said Wednesday.
Sergei Bogdanchikov, traveling with President Vladimir Putin on an official visit to China, said he was positive that energy giant China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its subsidiary Sinopec would buy Rosneft stock when the company IPOs in July.
"We are interested in Chinese companies acquiring [Rosneft] shares," he said, adding that the Russian government and Rosneft executives were in agreement that large companies should acquire stock via the IPO without enjoying any privileges.
Bogdanchikov said earlier Wednesday that he hoped the company would be involved in pumping oil to energy-hungry China when a crucial pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific is completed in 2008.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday in Beijing that construction of the pipeline would start in 2006.
The $11.5-bln dollar pipeline is slated to pump 1.6 million bbl/d for deliveries to Japan and China. Environmentalists, however, are still seeking to get the pipeline route changed, arguing it lies too close to Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater body.
Bogdanchikov also said Rosneft had signed an agreement with its Chinese partners to open two joint ventures in Russia and China by yearend. A Russian JV will apply for a license for development and production at tenders, and a joint venture in China will construct a refinery.
