MOSCOW — Russia’s economy ministry has sent to the government a draft directive for the meeting of the board of directors of oil company Rosneftegaz. A loan from western banks to pay for a 10.7 percent stake in Gazprom will be discussed at the meeting, the economy ministry’s press service told RBC.


Rosneftegaz’s board of directors will consider the issue later this week. The company plans to take the loan in October and December 2005 and pay it within a year.

In July, Rosneftegaz, which controls Rosneft, became the legal owner of a 10.74 percent stake in Gazprom. Rosneftegaz held talks with six banks - ABN Amro, J.P.Morgan Chase, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Morgan Stanley – to borrow $7.3 billion to pay for the Gazprom shares.

As we previously reported, Rosneft plans to sell up to 49 percent of its shares to private investors. Rosneft president Sergei Bogdanchikov said the company planned to consolidate the assets of its subsidiaries by the end of this year. He said minority shareholders in Rosneft subsidiaries could be allowed to buy seven to eight percent of Rosneft shares, another 10 to 12 percent could be sold to an investor, and the remaining shares would be sold through an IPO.