MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil major Lukoil has told the Russian government it wants to buy mid-sized rival Bashneft, with the state still studying whether to sell a controlling or minority stake in the firm to plug a budget deficit, sources told Reuters.
The government owns 75 percent of Bashneft, which it nationalized only two years ago. It is considering whether to sell a stake of more than 50 percent, or to limit the sale to 25 percent through a stock market offering, several government and industry sources said.
"There are many parties showing interest, including Lukoil," a government source said.
Lukoil declined to comment. It is Russia's second-largest oil producer and its biggest private oil firm, already producing as much oil as OPEC nations Angola or Nigeria.
Hit by collapsing oil prices, the government of President Vladimir Putin has ordered a privatization drive to cover a budget deficit and is also considering selling stakes in oil major Rosneft.
As MRC wrote earlier, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced to local media late-December that Russia is planning to privatize state-owned oil companies Rosneft and Bashneft.
A Bashneft sale would represent a significant turnaround after more than 15 years of non-stop consolidation and nationalization of the world's largest energy industry, which allowed the Kremlin to regain control after a chaotic privatization in the 1990s.
Lukoil, a Russian-based company, is one of the global leaders in the production and refining of crude oil and gas resources. The world's largest privately owned oil and gas company, measured by proven oil reserves, Lukoil has operations in over 40 countries.
Bashneft is the parent company of the Bashkir fuel and energy complex. Bashneft Group includes three oil refineries - Ufaneftekhim, JSC Ufa Refinery, Novoil and petrochemical plant Ufaorgsintez. The installed capacity is 24.1 m tonnes/year of hydrocarbons. Ufaorgsintez is a major producer of phenol, acetone, low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP). The company specializes in the production of oil in Bashkiria, Western Siberia and the Orenburg region. It supplies oil to the domestic market and for export.
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