Translated material
"Unable to digest"
Dmitry Medvedev: Gazprom is not negotiating the purchase of a stake in TNK-BP
Forty days before the end of the moratorium on the sale of TNK-BP shares, which the Russian and British owners of the company agreed upon four years ago, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom Dmitry Medvedev again denied information about the gas monopolist’s interest in this asset. “There are no plans, no negotiations are being held,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying at a press conference for foreign journalists. But this does not mean that Gazprom has completely dropped out of the pool of potential buyers. It’s just that now the company clearly does not have enough financial and human resources to handle the next largest acquisition in its history.Moreover, this assumption is indirectly confirmed by Mr. Medvedev himself. According to him, there is an opinion that Gazprom is “ready to absorb everything it sets its eyes on, but it is not able to digest all energy assets, and thank God.” “If Gazprom is placed on Olympus, there will be no development... and the company will turn into a ministry,” the official added.
Due to warm weather at the beginning of the year, Gazprom is experiencing certain financial difficulties and is having difficulty coping with other large-scale transactions of the current year - the acquisition of a controlling stake in Sakhalin-2 ($7.45 billion), assets in the electric power industry (about 6 billion) and shares of RUSIA Petroleum from the same TNK-BP (about $800 million by the end of the year). In addition, not everything is simple with the “digestion” of acquired assets - this also applies to personnel and the integration of new business into the group. Even the negotiation process itself on such large transactions requires such concentration of effort that there is not enough time and energy for other important areas. One of Gazprom's main negotiators in the area of asset acquisition, deputy chairman of the board Alexander Medvedev, spoke directly about this.
The last burst of rumors about a possible deal to buy out Russian shareholders in TNK-BP occurred in early November. At the Champions League football match between the German Schalke 04 (sponsored by the Russian gas monopolist) and the London Chelsea, the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, met with the head of BP, Tony Hayworth. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that one of the topics was the entry of a gas shareholder into the shareholders of TNK-BP. Then there were no comments from the parties.
As is known, 50% of the oil company belongs to the British corporation BP, and the consortium of Russian business groups Alfa and Access/Renova owns the same amount. In 2003, the creation of such a joint venture was personally approved by Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair, but since then the concept of the Russian authorities’ ideas about the organization of the oil industry has changed dramatically. And the existing ownership structure of TNK-BP clearly does not fit into it. Nevertheless, today the question of purchasing shares of the company by Gazprom seems to really not be on the table. But it costs almost nothing to put it back on the agenda.
Russia is completing negotiations on gas supplies until 2011 with Ukraine and the Baltic countries and hopes to avoid “gas problems” before the New Year, Dmitry Medvedev said at a briefing in RIA Novosti . “We are now in the final stage of negotiations with our partners,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister. Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko has been in Moscow since Monday. “We must discuss the terms of supply not only for next year, but also until 2011. And this is the most difficult thing. Not everything is as simple as we would like. We have our own vision, our Ukrainian partners have theirs. We, of course, are trying to help them, but nevertheless we must see a predictable perspective - how the final transition of the Ukrainian economy to market conditions for gas supplies will be carried out. These things require additional mutual coordination,” Mr. Medvedev said. - I think that a final understanding will be found in the near future. I emphasize that we are talking about a three-year perspective. At the same time, we must, on the one hand, ensure the transition of our partners to market prices, on the other hand, do this according to a scheme that is comfortable for them. And where to find this balance is probably the most difficult thing.” According to the terms of supplies for 2008, Medvedev said, “everything is more or less clear.” "TIME FOR NEWS"