MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] said Monday it had acquired offices and other non-core Yukos assets from Prana, which bought the assets after winning the May 11 auction.
The price of the deal has not been disclosed.
At the auction for the bankrupt oil giant's high-tech 22-story building in downtown Moscow, the previously unknown company outbid a Rosneft subsidiary by raising the initial price by more than 300% to almost $4 billion.
The other assets include research centers and managing companies, among them Yukos-M, hundreds of millions of dollars on the bank accounts of one of firms, gasoline stations in Moscow and the surrounding region, 500,000 metric tons of oil products, hundreds of millions of dollars in non-refunded VAT, and a debt of over $1 billion.
"Yukos-M managing company owns assets, which are part of a network of oil producing enterprises and refineries earlier acquired by Rosneft," the company said.
The anti-monopoly service had initially threatened to block Prana's deal until its ownership structure was clarified, but eventually gave its authorization. Igor Artemyev, the service head, said the competition regulator was aware of the company's ownership structure, but declined to specify it, citing commercial secrecy.
The business daily Kommersant earlier suggested the company was linked to another state-controlled energy giant, Gazprom [RTS: GAZP].
In December 2004, Rosneft bought Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos's main production unit, from a similarly ambiguous company that had acquired it at an auction three days earlier.
Yukos, once Russia's largest independent oil producer, was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation over tax arrears. Its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion, which he says were punishment for his political ambitions and part of the Kremlin campaign to regain control of the crucial energy sector.
Rosneft also said it had sold 50% of its stake in a Siberia-based former Yukos production unit to state-run Vneshekonombank foreign trade bank.
"The sides agreed to share the management and decision-making in the Tomskneft oil company, including the rotation of its top officers," Rosneft said.
Rosneft bought 100% in Tomskneft, which holds 20 oil production licenses in the region, at a May 3 auction for Yukos assets, which also included two refineries, for 176 billion rubles ($6.8 billion).
The oil giant now also owns another major Yukos production unit, Samaraneftegaz, based in the Volga area.
Rosneft produced over 80 million metric tons of oil in 2006, largely thanks to the newly acquired assets.
