MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's embattled Yukos oil giant said it had partly suspended its deliveries to China because its legal troubles have left it without cash to pay transport and customs costs.
Yukos has suspended exports to the China National Petroleum Corporation, to which it was due to deliver one million tons before the end of the year, a Yukos spokesman told the Interfax on Sunday.
The Yukos official said the "temporary measure" was authorized by the firm's executive board over the weekend.
"Yukos's transport expenses and customs payments total 150-170 dollars per ton," said the spokesman, whom the news agency did not identify by name. "The company currently has limited access to its accounts and cannot bear such expenses."
Yukos officials could not be immediately contacted to comment on the report.
Yukos, the largest oil producer in Russia, has been the sole provider of Russian oil to China but the company's financial difficulties have raised doubts about its capacity to continue.
Yukos' oil represents roughly seven percent of Chinese consumption at 400,000 barrels per day.
The company's spokesman said that Yukos would continue deliveries to another Chinese oil company, Sinopec.
"We will supply about 750,000 tons of oil to it before the end of the year," he said. "Russian exports for Sinopec are more critical than for the CNPC. Therefore, we think it would be correct to ensure uninterrupted supplies for Sinopec."
China had a previous arrangement with Yukos for the supply of seven million tonnes of crude this year and 8.5 million next year, but the company's problems have left Beijing to deal directly with the Russian government.
In late August, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov assured China that Russia would continue its oil deliveries to the nation despite Yukos's difficulties.
"There is no reason for a state of emergency. Petroleum products will continue to arrive in China," Fradkov was quoted as saying on August 27.
Yukos faces a multi-billion-dollar tax bill from the authorities that it has been unable to pay because of a court-ordered freeze on its assets.
Many observers say the year-long investigation of the company and its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is Kremlin's payback for the tycoon's political ambitions.