On Tuesday a court granted the company's bankruptcy administrator three more months to continue the liquidation process, in which assets of the former oil giant are being sold off to meet creditors' claims.
"Lot No. 18," to be offered at Wednesday's auction, also includes telecoms, security, and investment subsidiaries of Yukos [RTS: YUKO], and several transport assets that failed to find buyers at previous auctions. According to unofficial reports, several bids have already come in, and state-controlled oil giant Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] has confirmed it will be looking to buy up more assets at the auction.
Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt on August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over arrears. Its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.
Through a series of liquidation auctions, Yukos has repaid more than 400 billion rubles ($16 billion) to creditors. The company's key production and refining assets have been bought up by Rosneft at auctions, making the company one of Russia's leading crude producers.
