"We have issued injunctions with regard of the company's 21 licenses concerning its oil-production facilities reported by the tax authorities for violations of the tax legislation," Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said. He added that these facilities account for 1.1 billion tons of the company's total oil reserves.
On Friday, the Ministry's License Commission reviewed Yuganskneftergaz's 26 oil-production licenses.
According to Mr. Trutnev, in five cases the Commission revealed violations of "geological" rather that "economic" nature. He declined, however, to be more specific.
The Commission will make decisions on these licenses at a later date due the need for an additional analysis of each of these cases, the Minister pointed out.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, employed by the Government to appraise the Yuganskneftegaz's assets, has tentatively evaluated the company at $15-17 billion. In a way, this could be called a compromise price for the Yukos subsidiary. It should be remembered that originally there were plans to sell Yuganskneftegaz for $1.75. Yukos categorically refused to accept such a low valuation of its subsidiary, arguing that the company's proven oil reserves were estimated at $30.4 billion. Yukos went as far as to threaten suing potential buyers of the Yuganskneftegaz in case the company would be sold at such an unjustifiably low, in Yukos' opinion, price. The amount cited by the German appraiser is nearly twice as low as the price previously quoted by Yukos. Nevertheless, given the current circumstances, it looks quite realistic. Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Igor Yurgens, for example, told the Ekho Moskvy Radio that the DKW's valuation "looks like a real price of the company today". Mr. Yurgens also pointed out that the Credit Suisse First Boston is currently conducting its own valuation of the Yuganskneftegans. In case the two Western appraisers come out with close estimates of the company's value, it would in all likelihood spell out the company's current market price.
