MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) – Rosneft's request for funding from the Russian National Wealth Fund is inconsistent with regulations for the provision of financing, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Wednesday.
"We will work with the company. The request in its present form is inconsistent with the demands that are presented for financing from the National Wealth Fund," Ulyukayev said.
On October 22, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Rosneft, the country's biggest oil company, had asked for over 2 trillion rubles ($49 billion) from Russia's National Wealth Fund to help withstand Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.
According to Ulyukayev, the assets of the National Wealth Fund as of October 1, 2014 stood at 3.27 trillion rubles. The minister explained that in general, no more than 60 percent of the fund can be spent on investment projects on a return basis. And as for individual projects, the limit for financing is 40 percent. Rosneft's more than 2 trillion rubles claim exceeds the regulations' limited financing capabilities of the fund.
The latest round of Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis target the banking, oil and defense sectors and ban the provision of technical and other assistance to Russian companies for oil exploration and production.
