Some more News from Sibneft:
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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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