Shares in Yukos, Russia’s biggest oil company, yesterday responded to mounting speculation that ExxonMobil was poised by take a 25 per cent stake in the company.
Yukos shares rose 4 per cent, helping to lift the Moscow share market to record levels amid suggestions that a deal might coincide with the presence in the capital of Lee Raymond, the US company’s chairman and chief executive.
In New York volumes surged in ExxonMobil, with 1.8 million shares traded as a report surfaced that a government official, Sergei Generalov, chairman of the Investors Rights Commission, had named Exxon as the buyer of 25 per cent in the merged Yukos-Sibneft for $17.5 million.
The Exxon chairman is due to appear on a platform at the World Economic Forum today with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive of Yukos.
The emergence of Exxon as a potential investor in Yukos-Sibneft comes after weeks of speculation that ChevronTexaco was poised to acquire a big stake in the merged group. Moscow energy analysts say that the loose shareholding in the merged company represents interests of Roman Abramovich, the principal investor in Sibneft who recently rose to prominence with the purchase of Chelsea FC.
Mr Abramovich has been liquidating his Russian assets and last week sold his half-share in Rusal, the aluminium manufacturer, to Basic Element, the industrial group controlled by Oleg Deripaska.
Exxon and Chevron may prefer to wait until completion of the Yukos-Sibneft merger, which is expected soon and would create the world’s fourth largest oil producer. They will also be certain to seek assurances from the President, Vladimir Putin, that recent investigations of Yukos by Kremlin prosecutors will not damage the company.
The vast oil reserves in Siberia are coveted by Western oil companies. Earlier this year, BP completed the merger of its own Russian interests with TNK, another big Russian oil company.
Yukos shares rose 4 per cent, helping to lift the Moscow share market to record levels amid suggestions that a deal might coincide with the presence in the capital of Lee Raymond, the US company’s chairman and chief executive.
In New York volumes surged in ExxonMobil, with 1.8 million shares traded as a report surfaced that a government official, Sergei Generalov, chairman of the Investors Rights Commission, had named Exxon as the buyer of 25 per cent in the merged Yukos-Sibneft for $17.5 million.
The Exxon chairman is due to appear on a platform at the World Economic Forum today with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive of Yukos.
The emergence of Exxon as a potential investor in Yukos-Sibneft comes after weeks of speculation that ChevronTexaco was poised to acquire a big stake in the merged group. Moscow energy analysts say that the loose shareholding in the merged company represents interests of Roman Abramovich, the principal investor in Sibneft who recently rose to prominence with the purchase of Chelsea FC.
Mr Abramovich has been liquidating his Russian assets and last week sold his half-share in Rusal, the aluminium manufacturer, to Basic Element, the industrial group controlled by Oleg Deripaska.
Exxon and Chevron may prefer to wait until completion of the Yukos-Sibneft merger, which is expected soon and would create the world’s fourth largest oil producer. They will also be certain to seek assurances from the President, Vladimir Putin, that recent investigations of Yukos by Kremlin prosecutors will not damage the company.
The vast oil reserves in Siberia are coveted by Western oil companies. Earlier this year, BP completed the merger of its own Russian interests with TNK, another big Russian oil company.
3287.99
1275.09