Menatep can sell the Yukos shares

The Menatep group in the near future can sell its shares of Yukos. This was stated by the chairman of the board of directors of "Yukos" Viktor Gerashchenko, speaking at the opening of the international conference "Expansion of capital - from the national economy to transnational" in Hong Kong. "Menatep as the owner of the" Yukos "can disappear in the near future, that is, this financial group can sell its share in the oil company," he said.

As RIA Novosti reports, Gerashchenko, in particular, said that the company does not make up for the future and until they make plans for 2005. “Because of this whole situation, we cannot engage in prospective planning, much will depend on how the fate of Yuganskneftegaz is developing,” he emphasized.

Gerashchenko did not exclude that the future owners of Yuganskneftegaz, if it is sold at auction, may encounter problems in the implementation of the produced oil. "Yuganskneftegaz is a mining enterprise, all contracts for delivery were concluded on behalf of the Yukos -Moscow company," he said.

Gerashchenko also emphasized that the recent cessation of oil supplies to one of the two Chinese companies was not an attempt to put pressure on the Russian authorities. "It's all about raising customs duties, recently they have grown from 41 to 92 dollars, and in our situation we could not afford to pay such amounts," Gerashchenko said. "We preferred to fulfill our obligations to our Russian clients," he said.