Uncertain future of Russian oil giant leaves Slovakia worried about the fate of Transpetrol oil

The problems of the bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos are creating headaches for some of Central Europe's energy companies. Yukos had stakes in a number of oil companies in this region including Slovakia's Transpetrol. Now it seems that two Russian companies are interested in buying the Yukos stake. But given the turmoil around Yukos - will Slovaks welcome another Russian investor?

Slovak politicians tried to be very polite to Vladimir Putin during his two day visit to Slovakia in February. They tried not to mention sensitive topics such as human rights in Russia or the situation of the oil giant, Yukos. The company owns a 49 percent stake in the Slovak company Transpetrol and many wonder what will happen to these shares. However, Putin felt obliged to give a straight answer to journalists' questions on the topic:

"There are two companies interested in acquiring the stake in question. One of them is Tatneft. Of course the Russian side must respect the decisions of the Slovak authorities concerning the fate of Transpetrol because the Slovak state controls 51 percent of the company. Anyway Russia will continue to export oil and gas to Slovakia no matter what happens to this company."

In 2002 the Slovak government sold the 49 percent stake in Transpetrol to Yukos for 74 million US dollars. After the oil giant got into trouble Slovaks began thinking of buying back the shares. Equity analyst Martin Kristofcak explains why the current situation at Transpetrol is complicated:

"Actually from the operational point of view it may be irrelevant for near future, because Transpetrol has proved that it can quickly switch to alternative Russian oil sources in case it encounters difficulties. In the long term the current situation is dangerous because it affects the market value of the company"

However, Kristofcak says that the privatization agreement signed with Yukos forbids it from selling any shares for a period of five years. Yukos reacted to Putin's comments by saying it hadn't planned to sell its stake in Transpetrol to any Russian company. The Slovak daily SME has lately run a series of articles pointing to the fact that Tatneft, the company that Putin mentioned, has already started negotiations with unnamed Slovak state officials in Bratislava.

The prime minister and top economic ministers denied knowing anything about such secret talks. Tatneft is the sixth biggest Russian crude oil producer. Many people in Slovakia don't really like the fact that it is a state controlled company. However, analysts like Martin Kristofcak say such worries are not justified as Russian businessmen have improved considerably their way of doing business.