Russian watchdog: Government may have to check Glencore’s deal

MOSCOW, Mar 19 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will study whether the government should check Swiss trader Glencore’s purchase of a 49% stake in oil company RussNeft, the service’s Director Igor Artemyev told reporters Thursday.

“If there are subsoil areas of federal importance there, which are connected to production, than I do not rule out such a possibility, it should be studied,” Artemyev said, adding that there is a regulation that if production is carried out at such an area and a company buys more than 25%, then the government’s commission must approve the deal.

Glencore has filed a request to allow it to receive 49% in a merged company of RussNeft, which owes $6.9 billion to it, and Nefisa refinery at the end of February. The request must be considered within 30 day, but a source told PRIME there will not be a final decision by the deadline as the service will have to ask for more information and analyze the market.

Glencore now owns stakes in RussNeft’s affiliates.

In 2014, Mikhail Gutseriyev, the sole owner of RussNeft, said that after the merger with affiliate Neftisa the joint company would cost U.S. $18 billion and have reserves of 700 million tonnes of oil and produce 17 million tonnes of crude per year.

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