Rosneft Becomes Largest Russian Oil Company with Tomskneft Purchase
The Russian oil company Rosneft has just become the country’s largest by its purchase of the Yukos oil unit, Tomskneft on Thursday. A Rosneft subsidiary, Neft-Aktiv, won a bidding war against a mystery bidder that was though to be related to Gazprom by submitting a $6.8 billion bid which was only $350 over the starting price.
That purchase boosts Rosneft’s output to close to 1.9 barrels a day, topping LUKoil with 1.8 million bpd. The lot purchased includes two large refineries, the East Siberian Oil Company and some stakes in a number of small power and distribution companies.
Rosneft has plans to boost its oil production up to 2 million bpd and eventually 2.5 bpd. This acquisition and a potential purchase of Samaraneftgaz from a Yukos auction next week would allow those production goals to be met much earlier than planned.
The mystery bidder, named Unitex is rumored to be a subsidiary of Gazprom. They led of the auction with the first bid and then bid again against themselves as Neft-Aktiv put in the next bid. Unitex made the same mistake three more times before the bidding settled down.
The near empty Yukos building is due to be sold later this month as the end comes to what once was Russia’s largest oil company.
