The minister met with Yukos Financial Director Bruce Misamore to discuss the purchase of the Yukos-owned stake in Mazeikiu Nafta.
The Mazeikiu Nafta complex comprises the eponymous oil refinery, which has an annual capacity of 12 million metric tons, an oil terminal in Butinge with an 8-million-ton annual capacity, and an oil pipeline.
Yukos International U.K. B.V. holds operator rights and a 53.7% stake in Mazeikiu Nafta. A 40.7% stake belongs to the Lithuanian government, which plans to buy Yukos' stake for $1 billion and then sell the packet to an investor for $1.7-$2 billion. The government is looking to sell up to 30% of its 40.66% stake to the new owner of Mazeikiu Nafta.
Yukos President Steven Theede earlier confirmed reports that a decision had been made to remove Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP and the LUKoil-ConocoPhillips consortium from the list of contenders, citing lowball offers they had made for the packet. Theede said that further talks would include Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz and Poland's PKN Orlen S.A. Kazakhstan's state oil and gas company, KazMunaiGaz, said it was ready to pay $1.2 billion, but the Kazakh company could not provide the oil refinery with crude due to unsettled problems with Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft.
Dauksys said none of the bidding companies had made adequate proposals and that the choice would be made in January.
Market experts assess the Yukos-held Mazeikiu Nafta packet at $1.5-$2 billion.
