The assets put up for sale are quite modest. They are concentrated in the management company NRK-oil, which includes OOO Klyuchi, Universitet-Nedra, NGDP Yuzhuralneft and NK Samara, which own licenses for hydrocarbon sites in the Samara and Orenburg regions. Their total oil reserves in categories C1 and C2 amount to 6 million tons, Lebedev himself told Vedomosti. At the same time, according to NRK-oil materials, more than half of this volume (3.1 million tons) was discovered by the company quite recently - they were put on the balance sheet at the end of last year - beginning of this year.

Lebedev explains his desire to sell the oil industry by the lack of funds for its development. "We are now forced to take on the rehabilitation of four textile enterprises, whose shares are pledged in our [National Reserve] Bank," Lebedev complains, "and this is a big expense, and we may not be able to handle it all together." Among other reasons for abandoning the oil business, he cites high competition in the industry and the "significant involvement" of the state in it. "And in general, small oil enterprises in Russia have no development prospects," he concludes. Lebedev hopes to receive approximately 2.5 billion rubles for his product. According to him, purchase offers have been sent to Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Zarubezhneft, TNK-BP and a number of other companies. "We have not yet received an intelligible answer from anyone," he says.

The press services of all these companies could neither confirm nor deny receipt of Lebedev's offer. And the manager of one of them told Vedomosti that "such insignificant reserves are unlikely to interest us."

Denis Borisov, an analyst at IFC Solid, estimates NRK-Oil's reserves at approximately $1 per barrel, or $50 million in total. In his opinion, "theoretically" these assets could be of interest to companies operating in the Volga region and the Urals - Rosneft, Tatneft, Bashneft, TNK-BP. "But they are unlikely to covet such meager reserves, unless there is a big discount," Borisov reasons. The expert believes that "if a buyer is found in these difficult times, it will be a small oil company."

Lebedev has no time for oil

Lebedev has no time for oil