"Of course, we would be interested in any opportunities that arose, but at the moment this is not the case. Any deal is unlikely until Sibneft fully dissolves its merger with Yukos," the influential British newspaper quotes Total chief financial officer Robert Castaigne as saying.
Total estimates the Sibneft stake of 25 percent plus one voting share at $4 billion and plans to hire Lehman Brothers as its investment bank to advise it on the deal.
At the same time, Castaigne pointed out that in case world oil prices remained at the present high level the deal is unlikely to materialize. "With the oil price at $37 per barrel it is not the best time to be making acquisitions, as any seller will try to integrate the favourable conditions into their asking price," he said.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that the Russian authorities had given their initial approval to Sibneft to sell a 25 percent stake of its assets to Total.
"Should the Kremlin continue to support the deal, Total will outmaneuver United States' ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil oil companies as well as the British-Dutch `Royal Dutch/Shell` which are also interested in buying a stake in Sibneft," the Financial Times reports.
The newspaper's source points out that the US Administration was "extremely annoyed" when the news of the potential deal came through.
Sibneft abstains from making any comments on the account. "We do not comment on market speculations," Sibneft spokesperson Alexei Firsov said, reminding reporters that similar information concerning a sale of Sibneft shares to foreign companies had repeatedly surfaced in the past.
