VILNIUS - Russia's second largest oil company said last week that it was interested in taking over Mazeikiu Nafta, the refinery and oil terminal complex, and was prepared to offer a "good market price" for the asset.
"We understand the importance of Mazeikiu Nafta for Lithuania. We want to speak with the country's leaders to make sure that we are acceptable to them. We would then take other steps and put forward our proposals," TNK-BP President Robert Dudley told reporters after meeting with President Valdas Adamkus.
Assuaging Lithuanians' most intractable fear, Dudley said that TNK-BP would guarantee a stable supply of crude to Mazeikiu, the only refinery in the Baltics. Mazeikiu Nafta, the country's largest taxpayer, has already suffered one supply disruption this year due to the crisis surrounding Yukos, its largest shareholder.
TNK-BP's high-profile visit to Lithuania, as well as the strong presence of western capital in its ownership, put it at the head of the pack and will likely force other interested companies, such as Russia's Lukoil, to make equivalent gestures.
Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas said that TNK-BP would be an acceptable investor for Mazeikiu Nafta. "We have not been officially informed about other (potential investors) as yet," he said. "I think it should be known in two to three months' time who the potential buyers of the shares will be, and how Yukos will select them," said Brazauskas.
The prime minister singled out stability of crude deliveries as the single biggest requirement put in place by the government.
Yukos owns a 53.7 percent stake in the refinery, while the government owns a 40.6 percent stake. Yukos reportedly has also been negotiating with Lukoil, Russia's largest producer of crude that has a chain of gas stations in the Baltic. Lukoil representatives have visited Vilnius to inquire about Mazeikiu Nafta.
Vitol, an international oil refining and trading company, is also thought to be among prospective buyers of the shares.
TNK-BP produced 72 million tons of crude in 2004, a rise of 13 percent year-on-year. Fifty-three percent of output was exported. The company, which is a merger of three Russian oil companies 's Tyumenskaya Neftenaya Kompania, Onako and Sidanko 's with British Petroleum, operates six crude refineries in Russia and Ukraine and a chain of 2,100 gas stations.
