Yukos to launch trial deliveries to U.S.

The Yukos group, Russia's second largest oil firm, said it would start test deliveries of its products to the United States, a development which comes only days after U.S. President George W. Bush expressed an interest in importing more petroleum from Russia.

"We are planning to carry out test deliveries on the eastern seaboard of the United States, or on the Gulf of Mexico," said company official Mikhail Brudno, in a report carried by the Interfax news agency.

"We believe we can deliver oil to the United States as efficiently as we deliver it to Europe," he added.

The unprecedented shipment, about 2 million barrels of crude from the Urals region of Russia, would likely be routed through the Black Sea, according to officials.

Yukos recently wrapped up talks with the U.S. energy company Williams on a crude-for-equity deal that would give the Mazeikiu Nafta, controlled by Williams, a sorely needed injection of cash.

According to reports, the deal would give Yukos a 26.85 percent share in Mazeikiu for a payment of $75 million, a $75 million loan and a guaranteed delivery of 5 million tons of crude oil per year for a decade.

The Lithuanian Parliament on June 4 adopted legislation clearing the way for the Russian oil company Yukos to acquire a 26.85 percent stake in the Ma-zeikiu Nafta oil refinery.

The legislation allows the government to provide loan guarantees for Yukos' investment in the refinery, the country's largest company.

Williams, which bought a 33 percent stake in Mazeikiu Nafta in 1999, will keep management rights in the refinery but see its stake in the company decrease to 26.85 percent.

The Lithuanian government will hold 40.66 percent after the transaction and small shareholders the rest.

The deal places no restrictions on Yukos obtaining more shares in Mazeikiu Nafta and provides the Russian company the possibility of reselling its stake in Mazeikiu Nafta.

A similar deal faltered last year in part because of a Yukos demand to eventually acquire Williams' stake.

Williams officials would not comment on how the proposed deal with the United States might further affect Mazeikiu's oil refinery and the Butinge terminal, also owned by Mazeikiu.

At last week's summit in Moscow, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new dialogue between their countries over energy policies.

The United States is keen to reduce its dependence on Middle East oil, and Russia is the world's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia.

On May 30 Yukos reported a 6 percent decline in 2001 net earnings to 104.66 billion rubles ($3.37 billion) compared with 2000.

The group said the results, conforming to U.S. accounting standards, took account of tax law changes that boosted profit by 25.9 billion rubles.

Without that addition, net profit would have come to 78.8 billion rubles, down 29 percent from 2000.

Sales fell 10.1 percent last year to 295.7 billion rubles.

The results generally conformed to expectations by industry analysts, who predicted lower earnings because of weaker international oil prices during the year.

Yukos produced 58.07 million tons of oil in 2001, up 17 percent from 2000.