Hi, here are some infos about Sibneft,
Greetings
1. LINKS ON SIBNEFT
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Sibneft Homepage
sibneftoao.com
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Sibneft in Berlin
infomanager1.consors.de:9032/consors/kursinfo.html?searchfor=920856
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RTS Results for SIBN
rtsnet.ru
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2. ARTICLES ON SIBNEFT (text below)
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Sibneft Reaches For News Horizons. (RMG, 23.4.99)
rmg.ru
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New Minister Gives Sibneft Major Gift (The St. Petersburg Times, 1.6.99)
(archive only for subscribers !) sptimes.ru
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Focus-Russian Sibneft Boosts '98 Profits (Reuters, 4.6.99)
customnews.cnn.com
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3. ARTICLES ON ROMAN ABRAMOVICH (text below)
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'Secret' Tycoon Next Kremlin Puppet Master? (The St. Petersburg Times, 1.6.1999)
(archive only for subscribers !) sptimes.ru
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Roman Abramovich -- Mysterious tycoon emerges as new Kremlin eminence grise. (AFP, 2.6.1999)
russiatoday.com
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ZU 2. ARTICLES ON SIBNEFT
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Source: Rye, Man & Gor Securities
Date: 23 April, 1999
Sibneft Reaches For News Horizons.
Despite the embattled state of its supposed "real owner", Boris Berezovsky,the oil company Sibneft is well on track to join Russian oil blue chips Lukoil,Surgutneftegaz and Tatneft, helped by a fine PR coup this April - theapproval of Level-1 ADRs on its stock. Sibneft will allocate 200 million of its shares for the ADR program, with one ADR representing 20 shares. Just ahead of the ADR issue, it seemed that the good news had not yet filtered through to investors, with Sibneft domestic shares fluctuating unexcitingly in a $0.13-0.15 range.
Sibneft was a latecomer among Russia's vertically integrated oil companies, but it is also one of the . most intelligently assembled of its peers. Its production arms - Noyabrskneftegaz and Noyabrskgeofizika - along with the Omsk refinery and a local product distributor were snapped out of the state company Rosneft under an August 1995 presidential decree, and these components make a good fit with each other. The company has recently shown signs of investor-friendly and transparent policy, reaching accord with US investor Kenneth Dart over consolidation of 94.5% of its subsidiary Noyabrskneftegaz into Sibneft shares. By the end of this year Sibneft plans to raise its stake in the Omsk refinery to 75% from the current 54%. This year should see the completion of Sibneft consolidation.
The fall in world oil prices forced the company to cut production costs from $13 per barrel in early 1998 to $9 per barrel by mid-1998, although this still left Sibneft producing less effectively than its competitors: by mid-1998 Lukoil production costs were down to $7 per barrel, while Surgutneftegaz had managed to pull back to $4.5. Ruble devaluation gave a much-needed extra impetus, bringing Sibneft production costs down to a current level of $2.8 per barrel, compared with $1.8 per barrel for Lukoil and $2.1 for Surgut.
Through 1998 the company closed 300 low-production wells, and this, coupled with generally young fields, which produce high-quality oil with a high flow rate, gives the company competitiveness. Sibneft's average well output is 14 tons against an industry of 6.8 tons. However, the company has not yet managed to turn around the downward trend in its output, which contracted 9% since 1996 and amounted to 16.9 million tons in 1998.
In an effort to increase hard currency flows, Sibneft is focusing on expanding its export sales, which grew by 119% over the last six years. In 1998 the company channeled 5.9 million tons of crude abroad.
Another positive factor in Sibneft srategy is an increase of income through expansion of its operations in Central Russia, adding to its dominance in Siberia, where in 1998 it gained almost full control over the fuel markets in the Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions thanks to a total 130 outlets. The market share of the company in these regions increased from 70% 1997 to 90% in 1998.
Sibneft has transferred to GAAP standards and is pushing through full corporate restructuring. Its transparent and westernized management has impressed investors.
Sibneft's financial highlights (USD mln)
1998* 1997 1996
Revenues 1800 2988 3041
Expanses 1770 2933 3106
Pre tax profit 40 81 71
Net profit (5) 68 (6)
Source: Sibneft
*-Preliminary data
The financial crisis has hit Sibneft financial results, but ruble devaluation gives the company a chance of presenting brighter financial results in 1999, when the company is hoping for $100m net profit. Following Lukoil the company is pursuing a policy of expansion abroad, where it wants to find a more friendly tax regime and more solvent consumers. In 2010 Sibneft plans to extract 20% of its crude abroad, mainly in the Caspian basin and the Middle East.
It is likely that completion of consolidation and settlement of problems with minority shareholders will enable Sibneft to shift its efforts towards improved operating efficiency, which will boost the return on investments.
The Level-1 ADR debut on international markets is clearly a bid to join the Russian blue chip club, and the discount of Sibneft stock compared with market leaders Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz deserves a second look.
Comparative valuation
Company Market Cap. USD mln EPS
Surgutneftegas 2698 0.02
Lukoil 3896 0.32
Sibneft 587 (0.001)
Tatneft 196 0.11
Source: RMG estimates
The information contained herewith is based on information made available to the public and is for information purposes only. Information sources are deemed reliable by RMG Securities, however RMG Securities abstains from any liabilities determined from the information herewith. Analysis is based on dated market information and is subject to change.
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Source: The St. Petersburg Times
Date: 1.6.1999
New Minister Gives Sibneft Major Gift
By Eduard Gismatullin
STAFF WRITER
MOSCOW - The re-emergence of archtycoon Boris Berezovsky as a political force has apparently paid its first concrete dividends, as oil major Sibneft received 6 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil last week courtesy of new Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny.
Within hours of Kalyuzhny's appointment last Thursday, Russian national oil pipelines monopoly Transneft was stripped of the Iraqi oil allocated under the pariah regime's UN-supervised food-for-oil program, former Fuel and Energy minister Sergei Generalov said.
Under the UN-monitored oil-for-food program Iraq is allowed to sell crude worth $5.26 billion during the sixth phase that runs for 180 days after it was extended without a hitch Tuesday.
However, as the country's oil infrastructure has not seen any investment for a long time, Iraq is able to offer only 360 million barrels of crude, worth an estimated $3.9 billion.
The first cargo of about 230,000 metric tons of Iraqi crude is expected to be picked up by Russian trading firm Taurus, which is due to deliver the oil Saturday to U.S. Gulf, Reuters reported.
Russian oil companies account over 40 percent of the total volume allocated for the sixth phase, Generalov said.
Companies granted rights to take delivery of the crude receive a commission on the transactions.
Over the past three months the ministry has cut the number of Iraqi crude lifters for its allotment to 12 companies from the original list of 34 firms. Most oil traders have been squeezed from the panel, while oil producing companies have managed to keep their status.
The state-owned Zarubezhneft company has secured the biggest oil volume among Russian firms with 30 million barrels, a 76.5 percent increase over its initial fifth phase quota of about 17 million barrels, according to Energy Intelligence Briefing.
LUKoil comes in second with an initial 20 million barrels of crude, an astonishing 263.3 percent boost over the original 5.5 million barrels it was allocated in the previous phase.
Russian oil trader Mashinoimport and state pipeline construction firm Zangaz (also known as Zarubezhneftegazstroi) have each been granted 7 million barrels of oil, while Rosneft was given 6 million barrels of oil according to Energy Intelligence Briefing.
Sibneft has therefore jumped from nowhere to become one of the leading Russian recipients of Iraqi oil.
Sibneft head Roman Abramovich has long had strong ties to Berezovsky. Both Berezovsky and Abramovich have been widely reported in the Russian media as wielding renewed influence in recent days over President Boris Yeltsin and his inner circle.
Sibneft, LUKoil and Tyumen Oil Co. are set to gain the most from Kalyuzhny's elevation to the ministry, Generalov said.
Sidanko is likely to be the biggest loser, he added. "I think [Sidanko] will be torn apart now."
BP Amoco, which controls a 20 percent stake in the oil major, will not be able to hold it together, Generalov said.
Yukos may also suffer, thanks to a grudge Kalyuzhny reportedly holds against Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The pair fought a tough battle over the 1997 privatization of the Eastern Oil Co., with Yukos the eventual winner.
New First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko, reportedly a Berezovsky protégé, has taken a strong interest in the oil and energy sector, along with the so-called natural monopolies - Gazprom, power grid Unified Energy Systems and his old stomping grounds at the Railways Ministry. Aksyonenko on Thursday took time out from a busy schedule of jockeying for Cabinet pecking order to present Kalyuzhny officially to the ministry.
Despite the powerful array of forces lining up behind the Sibneft deal, Transneft President Dmitry Savelyev was refusing to give up the crude without a fight.
"We have a program to reconstruct an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria," Savelyev said Thursday as he arrived at the Fuel and Energy Ministry building.
The Transneft boss said he had arrived to lobby the minister for a return to the status quo.
However, Savelyev may soon have more to worry about than merely losing a few million barrels of Iraqi oil.
The new regime may well follow what has become almost standard practice for new Russian governments and relieve him and other heads of major state-owned companies of their posts, industry analysts said Thursday.
Transneft and two other Russian oil companies - Slavneft and Rosneft - are likely targets for management reshuffles along with the changes in the ministry, Generalov said.
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Focus-Russian Sibneft Boosts '98 Profits
Reuters
04-JUN-99
MOSCOW, June 4 (Reuters) - Russian oil company Sibneft said on Friday it boosted its 1998 net profit to $36.145 million, the results helped by a rouble devaluation that cut costs in dollar terms, but hit by low oil prices.
The 1998 accounts, to U.S. GAAP standards and audited by Arthur Andersen, showed net profit up 51.3 percent from a restated $23.888 million in 1997. The figure was restated after an accounting change linked to valuing oil and gas properties.
Although total revenues were off by a steep 40.4 percent to $1.78 billion from $2.99 billion the previous year, the devaluation of the currency, the rouble, last August helped cut operating costs by approximately the same amount.
These fell to $1.57 billion, 39.3 percent off from the previous year's $2.59 billion, mainly as a result of the devaluation, but also reflecting a cost-cutting programme.
Low oil prices were behind last year's cut in revenues as Sibneft's crude export prices averaged $9.12 per barrel in 1998 and $8.95 in the first quarter of 1999 versus $16.62 in 1997.
Domestic prices were even lower, averaging just $1.54 per barrel in the first quarter of 1999 versus $8.05 in 1997.
This led Sibneft to increase its crude exports to 33.8 percent of production (40.88 million barrels) last year, from 26.5 percent (35.04 million barrels) in 1997.
Low prices, especially on the domestic market, are likely to limit production this year.
The company forecasts output in 1999 at 336,000 barrels per day, down from 342,000 bpd last year and 359,000 bpd in 1997, before gradually rising from 2000.
"We're trying to make money," Sibneft president Eugene Shvidler told Reuters after a results presentation.
"If we decide this is the optimal volume of production, we'll stop there."
Sibneft has been the subject of Russian media speculation recently, with the company seen as a beneficiary of the recent change of government. Newspapers also say it is linked with two businessmen, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, who are also rumoured to have influence on the Kremlin.
Shvidler said the rumours were "misuse of the media".
The speculation has also included talk that Sibneft was to be given Tymenenergo, part of power grid Unified Energy System, and that it had been given a quota to lift Iraqi crude, previously given to oil pipeline monopoly, Transneft.
"If they want to transfer Tyumenenergo to us as a gift we'd very much welcome it," he said. "Otherwise we know nothing about it." He said Sibneft had been a participant in the Iraq-oil-for- food programme since it began two and a half years
ago.
"All of a sudden we were rumoured to lose our share, then this was reversed. We discussed it with (former Energy Minister Sergei) Generalov, who said it was a mistake," he added. Lifting Iraqi crude was more a matter of prestige than profit, he said.
Fuel ministry data on Wednesday showed Sibneft produced 6.857 million tonnes (335,000 barrels per day) of crude in the first five months of this year, making it Russia's seventh largest producer in that period.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
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ZU 3. ARTICLES ON ROMAN ABRAMOVICH
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Source: The St. Petersburg Times
Date: 1.6.1999
'Secret' Tycoon Next Kremlin Puppet Master?
By Eduard Gismatullin
STAFF WRITER
MOSCOW - As the latest Russian government is shuffled and reshuffled, attention has focused on a burning question: Who is pulling the strings?
While no one has found a definitive answer to this question, the extreme difficulties in finding an answer have focused attention on the shadowy but powerful figure of Roman Abramovich and his links to the presidential family and to the Sibneft oil company.
As archtycoon Boris Berezovsky keeps a low profile - or is pushed out of the picture depending on which Russian media commentator is talking - Abramovich has emerged as one of the media's prime candidates for the role of puppet master.
At 32, Abramovich has certainly enjoyed a spectacular rise, one that can rival any of his fellow Russian tycoons in its meteoric nature. But unlike even the most modest of the oligarchs, he has remained very much in the shadows.
Not only does he rarely appear in public, but the sources of his wealth remain obscure - as does his very appearance. There are apparently no photographs of Abramovich in the public domain.
Scandal sheet Versiya was so frustrated that it organized a competition, offering prizes to readers who could furnish the paper with photos of the man who is said to run the Sibneft oil major. NTV's Itogi current affairs program had to rely on a few seconds of footage from the January 1998 press conference held in honor of the agreement to
combine Sibneft with Yukos in the ill-fated Yuksi joint venture.
Abramovich's role at the top of Russia's political and business scene began at least as far back as 1996. Around that time, Abramovich was working as the head of the Moscow representative office of Runicom S.A., a Swiss-based firm.
After Runicom bought a 12.2 percent stake in Sibneft at a cash auction in 1996, Abramovich became the head of Moscow's Sibneft office.
These days he is listed by Sibneft as one of "the people behind Sibneft" on the company's Web site (www.sibneftoao.ru), which provides no further information about him. Neither would Sibneft's press office, other than to confirm that he is still the head of the firm's Moscow office and that he is listed on Sibneft's board of directors.
The press office also insisted that he is not the man who runs Sibneft.
However, according to the monthly Oil and Capital magazine, Abramovich stands behind four front firms - Sins, Rifain Oil, Runicom and Financial Oil Corp. - which between them held 91.6 percent of Sibneft as of mid April.
Through an extremely complicated web of relationships, these four firms also connect Abramovich with Berezovsky and with SBS-Agro bank, part of the empire of Alexander Smolensky.
Abramovich has also been listed as one of the people behind the Yeltsin family by numerous sources, including most noticeably, former presidential intimate Alexander Korzhakov.
In his memoirs, Korzhakov called Abramovich "the cashier" for the family, tying him to Berezovsky and to the latter's friendship with President Boris Yeltsin, the president's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko, and her husband, Alexei Dyachenko.
And Alexei Dyachenko also has strong ties to Sibneft. Boris Yeltsin's son-in-law heads an oil products trading company, East Coast Petroleum, according to Energy Compass oil newsletter. This firm lifts oil products from the Sibneft-affiliated Omsk refinery in Siberia.
But the Abramovich-Dyachenko-Yeltsin axis does not stop there.
East Coast Petroleum has a Moscow-based affiliate called Belka Trading Corporation, which published the second volume of Yeltsin's memoirs in 1994. Those memoirs - Zapiski Presidenta in Russian - were published in English by Belka in conjunction with Times Books, a Random House subsidiary, as "The Struggle for Russia."
According to Korzhakov, Berezovsky associate Valentin Yumashev - the ghost-writer for the memoirs - used to turn up every month with $16,000 in cash for Yeltsin that represented "royalties" for the book.
Abramovich has seemingly escaped the president's reported wrath over the accusations that Sibneft had been somehow connected with spying on the Yeltsin family. Investigators raided Sibneft's headquarters in Moscow in February, and reported finding evidence of some intelligence-gathering activities.
Although media reports at the time speculated that both Sibneft and security firm Atol had been linked in an effort by Berezovsky to collect compromising material on the Yeltsin family, no evidence of any such conspiracy has ever emerged.
Meanwhile, for all the talk of Abramovich as the new puppet master at the Kremlin - in some versions pushing aside his old mate Berezovsky - there is no evidence that
Abramovich has branched out to involve himself in activities outside of Sibneft.
Instead, mostly through oil trading firm Runicom, he has been busy consolidating Sibneft's hold on its subsidiaries.
In addition to marketing Sibneft's crude and refined oil products, Runicom has also helped the oil company to consolidate holdings by a share swap.
Runicom was registered in Gibraltar by its major shareholder Valnut Nominees, which holds a 99.8 percent stake in Runicom, according to Oil and Capital magazine. Runicom currently holds a 10.62 percent stake in Sibneft. The trading firm has helped the oil holding to build up its share to 94.5 percent in Noyabr sk neftegaz, a Sibneft producing subsidiary. Sibneft also increased its share to a 66.7 percent stake in the exploration unit Noyabrskneftegazgeofizika, according to Sibneft's press service.
On Monday, Runicom had closed its offer to shareholders in the Omsk refinery, retail firm Omsknefteprodukt and the Noyabrsk-based exploration outfit to swap their shares in the subsidiaries for shares in the Sibneft holding company.
Runicom has managed to swap up to 5 percent of Sibneft shares for the refinery securities, building the oil holding's control over the utility to about 43 percent, Sibneft's press service reported Monday.
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Source: Agence France Presse
Date: 2.6.1999
Roman Abramovich -- Mysterious tycoon emerges as new Kremlin eminence grise.
Roman Abramovich rarely appears in public and has a price out on his photo, but the mysterious tycoon has emerged in Russian media as a new Rasputin with secret influence over the Kremlin.
A 33-year-old director of Russian oil company Sibneft's Moscow office, Abramovich shies away from the public eye.
Nevertheless several newspapers are speculating that Abramovich was "the de facto architect" of a new cabinet which President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin announced complete on Monday.
The weekly Versiya has already promised a prize to anyone who can find a mug shot of the elusive magnate.
"Roman Abramovich has become a key figure in Boris Yeltsin's entourage, where he pushed away the shadow of Boris Berezovsky himself," an influential billionaire considered until recently as the Kremlin's eminence grise, NTV television reported on Sunday.
The television station is financed by another powerful magnate, media mogul and former banker Vladimir Gusinsky, who is battling with Berezovsky for influence.
Russian media often spot "Rasputins" lurking behind those in power.
The legendary monk Grigory Rasputin wielded tremendous behind-the-scenes influence over Nicholas II, Russia's last czar.
Newspapers have already identified numerous "Rasputins" during Yeltsin's more than eight years in office.
There was "secretary of state" Gennady Burbulis in 1991-92, then the shady General Alexander Korzhakov who reportedly controlled access to Yeltsin until 1996.
Then reformer Anatoly Chubais gained influence over the president, being described by his Communist foes as the Kremlin chief's gate-keeper.
In more recent months, Berezovsky was reported to fill this role.
"The new government: a team of those who share the ideas of Abramovich and Berezovsky," said Tuesday's headline in the well-respected business daily Kommersant.
"The principal financial flows are controlled from now on by (First Deputy Prime Minister) Nikolai Aksyonenko and Roman Abramovich, the two Kremlin favorites," the newspaper said.
"Many of the people who were invited recently to the Kremlin said that they needed to almost take an oath to Abramovich" to obtain a ministry post, the daily Izvestiya said.
The Kremlin has tried to downplay Abramovich's role, saying "no Abramovich has ever had anything to do with the formation of the government," the daily Vremya reported Tuesday.
But its protest comes too late: the media campaign to denounce the latest Rasputin had already begun.
The Kremlin counts on Abramovich to "mobilize all the necessary resources, so that the result of the next presidential elections guarantees the personal security of Boris Yeltsin and of his entourage," said NTV, hinting that the Yeltsin family fears being mistreated by those who next come to power.
Abramovich's role as the "banker of the presidential family" was publicized once in 1996 by Korzhakov, who was later sacked.
Gennady Seleznyov, head of the opposition-led State Duma lower house of parliament, also joined those who are wondering about Abramovich's role, asking, "Who is this Abramovich? What does he do?"
The businessman was accused of selling 25 fuel tanks from a Russian military unit to a Latvian enterprise in 1992, but the investigation was lost between the two countries' prosecutors' offices.
Abramovich reportedly owes his career to Berezovsky, who proposed him for the position at Sibneft.
Abramovich runs enterprises which combined control 85 percent of Sibneft's shares, according to The Moscow News.
He also, according to press reports, did his best to break down a since-failed merger between Sibneft and fellow oil giant Yukos.
Reports then accused him of trying to bury the project because he refused to share his powers with Yukos' director. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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