MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - State-owned Russian gas and oil giants Gazprom and Rosneft do not intend to buy a stake in the Russian-British oil group TNK-BP currently in the grip of a shareholder conflict, a government official said Saturday.
Questioned on the matter by Interfax news agency, Kremlin economic adviser Arkadi Dvorkovich referred to comments made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when he was Gazprom's number two.
Medvedev was quoted in June 2007 as saying that neither gas giant Gazprom nor Rosneft, the country's top oil producer, had any plans to buy a share in TNK-BP.
'We confirm it and think that TNK-BP has a good perspective on the Russian and global market,' said Dvorkovich.
The denial, however, follows comments by a Gazprom official last June which indicated the company was interested in joining the oil group once its current turmoil was resolved.
'Our shareholders said a year ago that if shares (in TNK-BP) were put up for sale, Gazprom would consider a possible purchase,' Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom executive committee vice chairman, said at the time.
TNK-BP is jointly controlled by British oil major BP on one hand and three Russian financiers, Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik, on the other.
The trio is currently pressing for the removal of TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley, whom they accuse of being partial to BP.
The dispute has fuelled speculation that Gazprom might eventually acquire 50 percent of TNK-BP, which would give the Russian state access to vast oil resources. TNK-BP is Russia's third-largest crude producer. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com ak COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.