MOSCOW — Deputy industry and energy minister Ivan Materov does not rule out the possibility of selling a blocking share in Rosneft. The deputy minister has given this opinion to reporters today. Materov noted that over 90 percent of all licenses to develop oil fields had already been distributed, and the only options left for foreign companies were to cooperate with Russian companies or to buy shares in these companies.

Commenting on potential buyers for the block of shares in Rosneft, the deputy minister remarked that it could be sold to any company from China, USA or some other country. "There will be many bidders," Materov believes.

Additionally, the deputy minister doubts that the first stage of the increase in the state's share in Gazprom to the controlling share can be completed before the annual meeting of shareholders in the gas holding company, which will be held on June 24. Materov referred to numerous technical difficulties in connection with this.

Morgan Stanley has estimated Rosneft at USD20bn-USD28bn, deputy head of the Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry Andrey Sharonov has told journalists. He stressed that there was no data on final results of the assessment. The mentioned above assessment was the first results of Morgan Stanley's work and there were a number of recommendations on clarifying some factors. The voiced figures range significantly, thus, the assessment takes into account the buyout of Yuganskneftegaz, he stressed.

According to Sharonov, there are no data on assessment of Gazprom assets. In this event, it were too soon to voice any preliminary assessments, he stressed.