by Christopher Boian
MOSCOW, Aug 9 (AFP) - Yukos shares surged Monday after a court said it could keep a core production unit for now, but experts here dismissed reports of a foreign bailout for the Russian oil giant facing bankrupcty over unpaid back taxes.
World oil prices meanwhile eased off last week's record highs on hopes OPEC production quotas would be raised and amid assurances that facilities controlled by Yukos would continue to supply oil independent of the company's legal troubles.
"I don't think Yukos' production will ever be stopped," said Pavel Kushnir, oil and gas analyst with the United Financial Group (UFG) brokerage firm.
"We believe the production companies have enough money to sustain production."
He acknowledged that some of Yukos' subsidiaries "may change hands" as the government case against the company developes, but said it was important to distinguish between those entities and the parent company at the center of case.
"The Yukos parent company wants to show everything in a very negative light, so they draw pictures of Russian production dropping," Kushnir said.
Traders said last week that the record surge in world crude oil prices was due at least in part to uncertainties surrounding the fate of Yukos and fears over even a brief suspension of its production at a time when supply is tight and demand high.
Analysts meanwhile said a reported proposal by a consortium of Dubai-based investors including members of Dubai's ruling Maktoum family to pay Yukos' tax bills and save it from bankruptcy would go nowhere if true.
"This proposal, from beginning to end, will be accepted nowhere," the respected business daily Kommersant said, commenting on the report in London's Sunday Times newspaper.
Kushnir said much depended on the Russian government's intentions regarding Yukos, but said if any of it were to be brought under state control "then no investor, especially foreign investors, would be allowed to bail out Yukos."
Yukos's former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's wealthiest person, has been in prison since last October after he was arrested and later charged with massive fraud and tax evasion.
His fate is widely described outside Russia as a Kremlin vendetta in response to Khodorkovsky's funding of political movements opposed to President Vladimir Putin.
The ruling after market closure Friday by the Moscow Arbitration Court allowing Yukos to retain control of Yuganskneftegaz, a core unit accounting for around 60 percent of Yukos' overall production, was a rare victory for the company.
Yukos pumps around 1.7 million barrels of crude per day. It has been given until September 6 to pay 3.4 billion dollars in taxes and penalties for the year 2000. Authorities have already made a similar claim for 2001 and more were expected.
The same Moscow court was due Monday to rule Monday on another Yukos oil production facility, Tomskneft, and analysts predicted that decision would also be in Yukos' favor and could lift share prices further.
Yukos shares shot up 17.6 percent to 4.41 dollars in early trading Monday on the RTS stock exchange, while the shares were suspended on another exchange after surging even higher on the back of the court ruling.
Experts concurred however that Friday's court ruling was only a stop-gap measure.
"We view Friday's court ruling as positive but temporary," UFG said in a market commentary.