Gasoline kick

LUKOIL threatens to trade Mazeikiu Nafta for Scandinavia

LUKOIL, which has almost lost hope of acquiring the Mazeikiu Nafta shares owned by YUKOS, is trying to at least slightly influence the negotiations on the sale. Chairman of the Board of LUKOIL-Baltic (owns the largest retail network in Lithuania - more than 100 gas stations) Ivan Paleychik said yesterday that his company intends to reduce by a third the volume of petroleum products purchased at the Lithuanian plant. “Mazeikiu Nafta, as a monopolist (the only refinery in the Baltic states. - Ed. ) dictates conditions on the market, which we do not want to agree with,” Interfax quotes him. “Therefore, LUKOIL-Baltic decided to refuse part of the production of the Mazeikiai Refinery and import Scandinavian gasoline in its place.” In January, 4 thousand tons of gasoline were already imported from the Scandinavian countries; during this year this volume will reach 100 thousand tons, which will account for about 30% of the petroleum products sold in Lithuania by a subsidiary of LUKOIL. Previously, the company traded only in products manufactured in Lithuania.

With the sale of Mazeikiu Nafta, YUKOS is facing more and more new problems. The company itself wants to earn as much money as possible for its 53.7% stake in Mazeikiu Nafta, but the second major shareholder of the plant - the Lithuanian government, without whose permission the transaction cannot be carried out - is not satisfied with the potential buyers represented by the Russian company. Yesterday another meeting between YUKOS and the republican authorities took place. However, its results were not made public, and the scheduled briefing was cancelled. The companies that offer the highest price for the Yukos stake - the Kazakh Kazmunaigas, which announced its intention to pay $1.2 billion, and the Polish PKN Orlen, which is ready to pay $1.5 billion - cannot guarantee the supply of raw materials to the plant , which Lithuania insists on. Orlen is a processing company, and Kazmunaigas can only load the enterprise by transporting raw materials across Russia. The company has already asked the Russian government to provide it with the transit of 12 million tons of oil in the direction of Lithuania, but was refused. True, Kazmunaigas now states that it will theoretically be able to somehow exchange oil produced in the Caspian Sea for raw materials produced by other companies in the North Sea, and thus ensure supplies to Mazeikiu Nafta.

The Lithuanian authorities, who apparently want to sell their share of the plant at the same price per share as in the deal with Yukos, are now in a rather delicate position. On the one hand, the Poles and Kazakhs are offering good money for the plant, and they are not connected with Russia, which is quite important for Lithuania from a political point of view. But, on the other hand, without Russian oil workers (it is believed that LUKOIL is offering $980 million for the Yukos stake, and TNK-BP - $600 million), it will be very problematic to load the plant, and if this succeeds, then, as Mr. - Mr. Paleychik, there will be difficulties with the sale of petroleum products in Lithuania. The head of LUKOIL-Baltic says that prices for Scandinavian fuel will be the same as for Lithuanian fuel. However, it is not difficult to guess that if LUKOIL loses the fight for Mazeikiu Nafta, it may increase the volume of purchases of petroleum products in Scandinavia, which will lead to their significant rise in price. And the Lithuanian government is clearly not interested in this.

As a source familiar with the progress of the negotiations told the Lietuvos rytas newspaper yesterday, YUKOS still intends to sell the plant's shares at the highest possible price and is not making concessions to the Lithuanian government. In this regard, the Cabinet of Ministers is going to begin preparations for the independent repurchase of shares from YUKOS, however, it will take more than one month before the transaction is completed.

Denis REBROV, Nikolay GORELOV