BEIJING, November 8 (RIA Novosti) — Russia's major oil corporation Rosneft is able to implement all of the scheduled projects and meet all its debt commitments without turning for the government's support, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Saturday.
"I believe that being a major company and an active market player Rosneft is certainly able to deal with its problems without the help of the state," Ulyukayev told journalists, commenting on Rosneft's request for funding from the Russian National Wealth Fund.
"They are asking [for money] for all [their purposes]. Some 2.4 trillion rubles ($50.1 billion) for the projects, for closing the financing gap and so on," the Minister said, adding that he believes that the company can attract the means on either domestic or foreign markets, especially on the Asian.
On October 22, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that the state-run oil giant Rosneft has asked for over 2 trillion rubles from Russia's National Wealth Fund to help the company withstand Western economic sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. Rosneft said it may have difficulties in servicing its $55 billion debt and obtaining foreign equipment needed to develop new fields and to upgrade refineries as its access to Western financing and technology has been severely curtailed by the latest round of Western sanctions.
Addressing the same topic later in October, Alexei Ulyukayev said that Rosneft's request is inconsistent with regulations for the provision of financing. The minister explained that no more than 60 percent of the fund, which as of October 1, 2014 stood at 3.27 trillion rubles, can be spent on investment projects on a return basis. And as for individual projects, the limit for financing is 40 percent.
The latest round of Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis target the banking, oil and defense sectors and ban the provision of technical and other assistance to Russian companies for oil exploration and production.
