Italy's ENI Buys Yukos Assets At Auction

(RFE/RL) April 4, 2007 -- A subsidiary of Italy's ENI energy giant, EniNeftegaz, won an auction today for a package of assets of bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos for $5.8 billion.

In line with an earlier agreement, EniNeftegaz offered Russian giant Gazprom the option to buy a 51-percent interest in three of the auctioned companies within two years. It also offered Gazprom to purchase a 20 percent stake in Russia's fifth largest oil company, Gazpromneft, which was among the Yukos assets.

Gazprom Deputy CEO Aleksandr Medvedev said the company planned to accept the offer.

Yukos was driven into bankruptcy after it was hit with billions of dollars in back taxes and its chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was convicted for fraud and tax evasion.

(AFP, AP, dpa)

An OPEC For Natural Gas?

A tanker carries liquified natural gas to markets in Asia (AFP)

COMING TOGETHER? PFC energy analyst Nikos Tsafos and RFE/RL energy analyst Roman Kupchinsky discussed with an RFE/RL briefing what the likelihood is of a natural-gas-producers consortium being formed and what such an organization might look like.