Foreign investors may be allowed to bid for the main asset of Russian oil major Yukos, Russia's privatisation agency said today.
Mr Vladimir Zelentsov, director at the Russian Federal Property Fund, told NTV television that there would be at least two participants in the auction of Yuganskneftegaz assets.
The announcement comes amid speculation about a fire sale to settle Yukos's back taxes.
The fund has set a November 22nd date for an auction under a draft plan, according to the Interfax agency, which reported the starting price for the auction could match the size of Yukos' sdebt - a fraction of the market valuation of Yugansk. The government is demanding $3.75 billion from Yukos in back taxes.
Mr Zelentsov said foreign participation "has not been ruled out." Many analysts see Russian gas monopoly Gazprom or oil firm Surgut, both believed to be close to the Kremlin, as likely buyers of Yugansk assets.
Analysts said they doubted that foreign oil companies would be interested in bidding for Yugansk, for fear that Yukos's core shareholders may challenge the legality of the sale in court.
Yukos shares dropped 10 per cent on Friday on speculation that the state may sell a controlling stake in Yugansk for as little as $4 billion. At midday today, the rouble shares were stable at 124.50.
Russia's Vedomosti business daily said on Friday that bailiffs collecting Yukos' $8 billion tax debt had issued a sale document for Yugansk that raised the possibility of a price tag significantly below the low-end valuation of investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein of $10.4 billion.
Yukos, which produces 20 per cent of Russia's oil output and accounts for 2 per cent of global production, has lost more than two-thirds of its value since April. Yugansk pumps out one million barrels of crude per day.