by Dmitry Zaks
MOSCOW, Aug 5 (AFP) - The Russian justice ministry backtracked Thursday on a decision to allow Yukos access to its bank accounts in a potentially fatal move that pushed global oil prices to new highs in New York and London.
The announcement confounded analysts and caused the battered stock in the country`s biggest oil exporter to crash.
Yukos declined to comment on a decision which had overturned another from the same ministry a day earlier.
On Wednesday, justice officials appeared to have thrown a lifeline to the company which once stood in open opposition to the Kremlin while pumping one-fifth of Russia`s oil, putting it ahead of state-controlled producers.
"It is pretty obvious that someone from the (justice) ministry is getting orders from above," said Erik Wigertz of the United Financial Group investment house in a clear reference to the Kremlin.
"The government is not willing to let Yukos breathe," he said. "The risk of Yukos exports stopping in a few weeks is still there."
Yukos will be forced by the end of next week to shut down rail shipments that account for a quarter of its export trade if its bank accounts remain frozen.
In New York, the main crude oil price bolted to new all-time high of 44.40 dollars a barrel in afternoon trade and in London the price for a barrel raced to a new high of 41.30 dollars.
Back in Moscow, Yukos stock had surged by around 10 percent following the initial report of a state reprieve.
But it ended the day down 2.3 percent and few analysts could explain a situation that changed by the minute and seemed to involve rival government players.
The new justice ministry statement said simply that it made a mistake.
"The justice ministry bailiffs never reached a decision about allowing NK Yukos to make monthly payments or of keeping its current affairs operational," the justice ministry said in a statement faxed to AFP.
"All of the financial resource that have or will continue to enter the company`s accounts will be seized or switched (into) the state budget to pay off the tax debt" that Yukos owes the state, the statement said.
Yukos said in a statement Wednesday that authorities had allowed it access to accounts to keep its operations running and pay off a 2000 tax bill of 3.4 billion dollars.
That sum could grow to up to 10 billion dollars if the state also includes potential bills for the years 2001-2003.
The justice ministry further accused Yukos of trying to "pressure and blackmail the state" by making public the ministry`s own decision from Wednesday.
Few in Russia`s business circles could understand what was going on and few were willing to put money on Yukos coming out on top in the end.
"We see little prospect of any fundamental reliefe," the United Financial Groups said in a weekly statement.
"It`s very difficult to comprehend," said Alfa Bank oil analyst Anna Butenko.
"This confusion just raises the frustration around Yukos even more. And this does not give a good impression of the Russian economy."
All of Russia`s blue chip stocks ended the day lower after showing promise in the early afternoon.
Yukos has so far managed to pay 700 million dollars of its 3.4 billion dollar tax bill for the year 2000, and executives have vowed to try their best to pay off the remainder within weeks.
The company is seen as one of the most transparent in Russia but also as one that gained too much influence and political power for the Kremlin`s liking.
Its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been jailed since October after being pulled from his company jet at gunpoint by masked troops in Siberia.
He and a few associates -- who used the same tactics as dozens of other tycoons that made billions in post-Soviet privatization mayhem but later bowed to the Kremlin -- could spend nine more years behind bars.
Khodorkovsky, who displayed open opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was and still is the richest man in Russia.