MOSCOW (AFP) - A top Yukos executive told a US audience that Moscow was undervaluing his company's assets to keep Western firms out of the Russian market as the struggling giant sold off its facilities to pay off back taxes, ITAR-TASS reported.
Yukos board chairman Viktor Gerashchenko told a Russia-US investment forum in Washington that no single Russian company could afford to pay fair market value for Yuganskneftegas -- the crown jewel of Yukos that most market players are watching.
Gerashchenko confirmed Russian reports that Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein had valued Yugansk at between 15.7 and 17.4 billion dollars -- a fair value according to analysts' valuations.
"But there is not a single Russian company that could afford to buy Yuganskneftegas for even 10 billion dollars, and the government does not want to give it up to a Western company," Gerashchenko was quoted as saying in Washington.
Yugansk accounts for 62 percent of oil produced by Yukos and its ownership would make any Russian company into a global power.
The 15 to 17 billion dollar figure for Yugansk has circulated in the Russian press all week. Yukos stock has seen a 23 percent gain since Monday. The share had lost more than three fourths of its value since the start of the year.
The justice ministry claims it has not yet received the official valuation figure. Meanwhile tax authorities presented new claims against Yugansk this week that analysts say may knock off a few billion dollars off its potential value.
"According to our information, they (Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein), have sent their valuation figure to the justice ministry," Gerashchenko was quoted as saying. "But the justice ministry claims it received no such thing.
"They did not expect the price to be so high and are doing everything they can to lower it," he said.
The government has yet to reveal its own assessment of Yukos's worth.
Yukos is the country's largest producer and accounts for two percent of the world's oil exports -- about the same as Iraq at present. Yukos shares and bank accounts remain frozen, meaning that it can only pay bills through its existing exports, which are slowly drying up.
It has already cut its main link to China because it is unable to pay the rail transport fees.
Yugansk's value could plummet should the natural resource ministry decide to pull its production license, a move that would make the field all but worthless and available at a bargain-basement price for one of Yukos' rivals.
That license is due to come under revue in Moscow later Friday.
With the realignment of Russia's lucrative energy sector carrying heavy political implications, none of the country's oil majors has yet expressed direct interest in Yukos assets.