The first lot will sell Yukos's stake in Russia's leading state-run crude producer, Rosneft, March 27. Yukos, once Russia's leading crude producer, was declared bankrupt in August.
"Bidding at the auction and acquisition of the stake will help consolidate strategic relations with Rosneft and initiate joint projects," Alexander Shchadrin, spokesman for TNK-BP, said, adding that the bidder would be Samotlorneftegaz, which operates a giant oil field in West Siberia.
The Rosneft stake is going to be sold in a single lot with an initial price of 195.5 billion rubles ($7.5 billion). The first lot will also include promissory notes worth 3.6 billion rubles ($139 million) in Yuganskneftegaz, formerly Yukos's core production unit, which is now controlled by Rosneft.
Rosneft has so far been the only bidder for the stake. RN-Razvitiye, Rosneft's 100% company, has applied with the anti-monopoly authorities for the stake and taken out a $9 billion loan to pay for the acquisition.
"Rosneft presently has a substantial imbalance between upstream and downstream - we produce much more oil than we have the capacity to refine, and we are therefore interested in the auction," Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov was quoted by the company's press service as saying.
Following a decision by the creditors' committee, Russia's Federal Property Fund said the assets would be auctioned off in three lots. The second lot will include Yukos's 20% stake in Gazprom Neft [RTS: SIBN], formerly Sibneft, as well as in 21 other assets.
Yukos's loan totals 709 billion rubles ($27.3 billion at the current exchange rate). Yukos's bankruptcy receiver, Eduard Rebgun, said in early March that estimates had put the initial value of the company at $27 billion.
