Rosneft Sell-off Could Be Brought Forward to 2012 - Report

LONDON (Dow Jones Newswires), June 20, 2011

Russia wants to hasten its planned privatization of state-owned oil giant Rosneft in the wake of the collapsed share swap deal with U.K. supermajor BP, the Guardian reports Monday, citing an interview with one of President Dmitry Medvedev's key economic advisers.

"We want Rosneft to be a normal commercial company," said Arkady Dvorkovich, according to the paper. "The original government proposals were to start [the share sale] in 2013 but maybe now will be brought forward to 2012," Dvorkovich said.

The Russian government was planning to sell more than 85% of its stake in the company in 2013 if BP had gone ahead as planned. Now ministers are looking at bringing this process forward a year, the newspaper reports, adding that state control in the firm could fall below 50%.

The government would be happy if BP bought shares in Rosneft, according to the Guardian.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.


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