Shares of Yukos's main oil producing company arrested

Yesterday bailiffs arrested shares of Yukos's main oil producing asset, Yuganskneftegaz, which produces roughly 60% of all Yukos oil, in order to sell them, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. Experts have pointed to Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom and Rosneft as the most likely bidders. According to various estimates, the Yukos subsidiary is worth $7-16 billion, while Yukos has to settle a tax bill through the sale of $3.4 billion. As soon as the news came, the oil major's shares dropped by almost 10%.

The Justice Ministry's public relations centre has also announced that a working group to select companies to evaluate Yukos would be set up. The group includes representatives of the bailiff service, the federal property fund and the federal financial markets service.

The arrest of Yukos's other oil producing subsidiaries, Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft, as well as tax claims to the company for 2001, suggest that Yukos may be left without any upstream assets, and only huge debts, analysts maintain. Accordingly, Yukos's creditors may soon announce that it has defaulted on $2.6 billion, which will inevitably leave the oil major bankrupt, experts point out.