Rosneft buys Yukos assets in Siberia for 6.8 billion dollars

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian state-run oil major Rosneft bought key assets belonging to bankrupt oil group Yukos on Thursday for 6.8 billion dollars (5.0 billion euros) in a deal that analysts said made the firm Russia's biggest oil producer.

The deal is a further boost for Rosneft, whose chairman Igor Sechin is the deputy head of the Kremlin administration, and confirms the company's status as the main beneficiary from the auctioning off of the once mighty Yukos empire.

A Rosneft spokesman said the company was "very happy" with auction.

"The purchase of assets in eastern Siberia will help us strengthen our position in this region. It's a strategically important region for us," Nikolai Manvelov said.

The auction took place at Yukos headquarters in Moscow...