Kremlin extends grip on oil

The chief of the private oil company Russneft is on the run in the wake of an international arrest warrant issued by Russia.

from the September 10, 2007 edition

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Mr. Khodorkovsky is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in a Siberian labor camp, and most of Yukos's assets have been taken over by Rosneft. His lawyer, Yury Schmidt, says the Gutseriyev case contains elements of déjà vu. "Khodorkovsky's fate frightened the business community and kept them on their knees for several years," he says. "But fear passes with time, and the example has to be renewed. [Gutseriyev] serves to remind people that anyone can be next."

Before disappearing about a month ago, Gutseriyev wrote an open letter to his employees, which he subsequently withdrew, complaining that the company had been subjected to "unprecedented hounding" after he refused to leave the oil business "on good terms." Therefore, he said, "I am handing control to a new owner whose appearance, I am sure, will ensure that all Russneft's problems will be resolved in time."

Mr. Deripaska has stepped forward to claim Russneft, last week asking the state Antimonopoly Commission to verify his purchase of the company.

But it is not clear whether Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court, which has frozen Russneft's assets against tax claims, will hand them over. Experts are also unsure about the intentions of Deripaska, Russia's second-richest man, who recently told an interviewer that "I do not separate myself from the state," and added that he would gladly hand over his property to the Kremlin if asked to.

"Deripaska may pass on Russneft to a state-owned entity, such as Rosneft," Mr. Krutikhin says.

In the past year, the state-owned natural-gas monopoly Gazprom has forced international firms such as Shell and BP to surrender their stakes in Russian gas fields, and many experts believe the Kremlin's appetite for hydrocarbon assets is still strong.

Kremlin wants national conglomerate

"The Kremlin wants to create a national champion in oil that could compete on a global scale," says Oleg Maximov, an analyst with Troika Dialogue, a Moscow-based investment firm. "Since the oil prices started rising, the state has moved to increase its participation in this sector and to give special breaks to state-owned companies."

The idea, he says, is to build the new conglomerate by merging the state-owned Rosneft with the Volga regional firm Bashneft, which has recently been renationalized, plus private companies that might be purchased.

"There are several candidates, including Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP, whose owners might be forced to sell, or choose to sell," says Mr. Maximov. "These are very big companies, each producing over 1 million barrels of oil daily."

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