| NOVATEK wants to buy out some Itera assets The largest independent gas producer NOVATEK announced one of its main goals for the near future. Chairman of the Board and main owner of the company Leonid Mikhelson transparently hinted at a final “divorce” with Itera: “We are ready to exchange the assets that Itera owns in our enterprises for NOVATEK’s assets in Itera’s enterprises,” he said. “We are not interested in those assets where we do not participate.” As a source in gas circles told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, in reality this means that the head of Itera, Igor Makarov, has been made an offer to sell shares in two main joint gas projects - Tarkosaleneftegaz and Khancheyneftegaz.
Itera says that it does not intend to part with these gas assets. However, after rumors appeared about the possible sale of Itera to Gazprom, Mr. Makarov admitted that he was considering several offers from potential buyers, among which there was no gas monopoly. Few people believed him, since Gazprom over the past couple of years has consistently deprived Itera of part of its assets and the lion’s share of sales markets, and, therefore, in a state of almost complete dependence on the monopoly, Mr. Makarov’s gas business would hardly have attracted anyone more.
The only exception is NOVATEK, which vitally needs to buy back from Itera the shares of 43.9% of Tarkosaleneftegaz and 26.77% of Khancheyneftegaz. Tarkosaleneftegaz is the largest gas field of both companies with an annual production of over 15 billion cubic meters of gas, which is divided in proportion to the share capital (8.4 billion cubic meters - NOVATEK, about 7 billion - Itera). At the Khanchey gas, oil and condensate field, which is being developed by Khancheyneftegaz, in 2004 it is planned to increase gas production at the field by 3.8 times compared to 2003 - up to 2.3 billion cubic meters (with a design capacity of 5 billion per year). Confirmed gas reserves as of the beginning of 2003 amounted to 112 billion cubic meters, and gas condensate and oil reserves - 16.3 million tons. True, there is no product section with Itera. But, as they say at NOVATEK, the presence of a blocking stake in Mr. Makarov’s company is slowing down the process of consolidating assets.
In 2002, NOVATEK and Itera planned to merge their assets within the framework of LLC NGK Itera. However, later it was decided not to merge, but to consider this issue only after the consolidation of assets within each of the companies, since Gazprom made it clear that he intended to deprive Itera of all the privileges that at one time made it the leader of independent gas production in Russia. Under these conditions, many began to predict the takeover of Itera by a monopolist. However, this scenario, apparently, is categorically not satisfactory for the owners. NOVATEK, since they will then have to coexist not with the now amorphous Itera, but with an unfriendly and aggressive monopolist. There is only one way out of this situation - to try to quickly come to an agreement and buy out these assets. However, it cannot be ruled out that Mr. Mikhelson’s financial capabilities. hardly correspond to the appetites of Mr. Makarov, who is now clearly “raising the price” of his business. Alexey GRIVACHS |
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