Siberian court to consider bankruptcy of RUSIA Petroleum company.

IRKUTSK, October 19 (Itar-Tass) - Arbitration court of the Irkutsk
region in East Siberia is considering a case over bankruptcy of the
company RUSIA Petroleum, which holds a license for developing the huge gas
condensate fields in Kovykta.
RUSIA Petroleum entered the bankruptcy procedure June 21, 2010 of its
own free will after its main stockholder and sponsor, the TNK BP
corporation represented by the filial company Rizben Enterprise Ltd.
issued a claim May 14 demanding an early redemption of loans amounting to
11.85 billion rubles /USD 1=RUB 30.7/.
The loans in question had been issued earlier for the purposes of
developing the Kovykta deposit.
RUSIA Petroleum's current financial situations does not make it
possible to return loans of this size, as its net losses in 2009 totaled
914 million rubles.
"The company was placed under examinership and a decision is to be
taken now on its further destiny proceeding from a report by the
bankruptcy commissioner and the creditor's proposals," a source at the
arbitration court's secretariat told Itar-Tass.
As the operator of the Kovykta gas condensate fields, RUSIA Petroleum
upheld an expansive program of geological surveys there prior to 2007.
Specifically, it effectuated a detailed appraisal of the fields'
reserves, raising them to over 2 trillion cubic meters of gas eventually
from the initial 346 billion cubic meters.
It also built land amelioration facilities and temporary pipelines,
drafted project documentation and launched a trial exploitation of what
appears to be Russia's largest vault of hydrocarbons,
The Kovykta gas condensate deposit is located 450 kilometers to the
northeast of the city of Irkutsk.
The TNK BP has a 62.9% stake in RUSIA Petroleum. The other two
stockholders are the Wholesale Power Generating Company OGK-3 /24.99%/ and
the Irkutsk region government /10.78%/.
-0-kle