RussNeft, Bashneft may merge in 2-3 yrs.

MOSCOW, May 20 (Itar-Tass) -- RussNeft co-owner Mikhail Gutseriyev
said his company might merge with Bashneft in the next two to three years.
"I believe that RussNeft will merge with Bashnet in the next 2-3 years
to form one big company producing 30 million tonnes of oil a year and
having one billion tonnes of oil in reserves," Gutseriyev said.
"In the future, we will consider an IPO for the new company," the
businessman said in an interview published by the business daily Vedomosti
on Wednesday.
"We are now eyeing foreign and Russian oil and gas assets. The first
deal may be made in a week's time, and in the next three to four months
RussNeft will acquire several other small companies. We will work to
increase capitalisation, reduce the debt, and cut costs, but this will not
affect the salaries of personnel," Gutseriyev said.
He described the current situation as "very complex".
"Production has dropped from 14.8 million tonnes to 11.2 million
tonnes, debts have grown from two billion to seven billion U.S. dollars.
The company can only service its own debt today. We need fresh solutions
and ideas," he said.
"We have started refinancing the debt and extended the repayment of
the Sberbank loan of 14.7 billion roubles to pay if off by 2015. RussNeft
will increase production by one million tonnes this year using only its
own resources, but production will grow to 15 million tonnes by the end of
next year," the businessman said.
"I plan to increase production to 20 million tonnes within the ext
several years and bring the profit to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars,"
Gutseriyev said.