Gazprom Neft expresses interest in Hellenic Petroleum, which is being put up for sale under privatisation plan
Russia's fifth-largest oil firm, Gazprom Neft, has become the first potential bidder to express interest in buying a stake in a Greek refiner that is being put up for sale by its cash-strapped government.
Under a privatisation plan agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, Athens is seeking buyers for its 35.5% stake, worth €630m (£520m), in Hellenic Petroleum.
"We are looking into the possibility of acquiring this asset. There are two decent plants with comparatively high capacity and quite high refining depth," said Gazprom Neft chief executive, Alexander Dyukov. His firm is part of the vast Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom, which has already said it might buy Greek natural gas company DEPA. Hellenic owns 35% of DEPA and has already stated it will not buy out the gas business.
Last month Greece's top privatisation official said stakes in Hellenic and another major listed company, gambling monopoly OPAP, would be up for sale by May to boost a much-delayed privatisation plan.
The wealthy Greek Latsis family, which owns 41% of Hellenic as well as extensive banking interests, has first refusal on the government stake but has not yet said if it will exercise its rights.
Hellenic operates across the Balkans and the biggest part of its profit still comes from Greece, even though fuel consumption has been hit by tax increases to shore up battered public finances.
The group owns and operates three refineries in Greece, with annual capacity of almost 16m tonnes – around 70% of the country's total.
Separately, the head of BP's Russian business is leaving Moscow the year after the UK firm failed to clinch a major Arctic strategic partnership with state-controlled Rosneft, the company said yesterday.
Jeremy Huck will be replaced by BP Russia's chief financial officer, Richard Sloan, in a "planned rotation" after a three-and-a-half year assignment, a spokesman for BP in Moscow said.
BP's partnership with Rosneft, signed in early 2011 after talks with then prime minister, Vladimir Putin, collapsed amid legal wrangling with the co-owners of its Russian venture TNK-BP. The deal had involved an exchange of shares in the two companies and prompted BP to be branded "Bolshoi Petroleum" in the US. ExxonMobil went on to team up with Rosneft.
After the failure, BP's Moscow office was raided by Russian officials in connection with a lawsuit over the Rosneft deal brought by a minority shareholder in TNK-BP's listed unit. A Russian court eventually found in favour of BP in the case.
Separate arbitration proceedings continue between AAR, representing four billionaire shareholders who own half of TNK-BP, and BP over the failed Rosneft deal. AAR argues that the deal violated the TNK-BP shareholders' agreement and the joint venture sustained damages.