In late May Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister Gherman Gref confirmed the government's intention to auction the LUKOIL state-owned block of shares in 2004 without giving exact terms of sale.
Today the state owns 7.59% of LUKOIL shares, Mr. Gref said.
The Russian Federal Property Fund offers to auction the LUKOIL state-owned block of shares to a single investor, fund's acting head Kirill Tomashchuk told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
According to him, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry already considered and approved this proposal. The draft of a relevant statement will be submitted to the government soon.
ConocoPhillips has already discussed the purchase of shares with LUKOIL top-managers, Financial Times said. ConocoPhillips wants to buy the shares directly from the LUKOIL management in order to get the blocking package of shares in the future.
LUKOIL's market capitalization totals $23 billion and 25% controlling block of shares is worth $5.75 billion.
LUKOIL is the world's second largest private oil companies. This is Russia's largest oil business group with a $15 billion annual turnover. It provides 20% of all-Russia oil production and 18% of all-Russia oil processing. This is Russia's only private company with predominating minority shareholders.
