Gazprom Waits for Obama

Gazprom is hoping that the upcoming meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, will bless its proposal to invest in producing and transporting gas in Alaska, the company's deputy chief Alexander Medvedev said Wednesday.

Gazprom last year discussed opportunities with BP and ConocoPhillips for participation in their planned pipeline to carry gas from Alaska southward. It also talked with ConocoPhillips about joining forces in sea shelf exploration off Alaska.

"Naturally, political support for this kind of projects is important," Medvedev said. (MT)

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Sberbank's Mystery Owner

Sberbank's only noncorporate shareholder with a stake of more than 1 percent is former Maxi Group owner Nikolai Maksimov, a Sberbank source said.

Maksimov bought 1.4 percent of Sberbank's shares in March and has more than doubled his money, the source said.

Sberbank deputy CEO Bella Zlatkis said Wednesday that the bank had only two shareholders with a more than 1 percent stake -- Vneshekonombank and a private individual who was "not an oligarch" and whose name would remain undisclosed. (Vedomosti)

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Overdue Loans Hit 4.4%

Companies' overdue loans rose to 4.4 percent of total loans as of June 1, up from 4 percent as of May 1, Central Bank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev said Wednesday, citing preliminary figures.

Companies' bad loans rose 9 percent to 569 billion rubles ($18.2 billion) in May, he said. Households' bad loans rose 5 percent in May to 204.5 billion rubles, or 5.5 percent of the total, Ignatyev said. (Bloomberg)

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Steel Consumption to Fall

NEW YORK -- Russian steel consumption will fall by some 10 million tons, or nearly a quarter, this year in the face of the global economic downturn, Rob Edwards, managing director of metals and mining at Renaissance Capital, told a steel conference Wednesday.

"Consumption markets are still pretty much at a standstill," Edwards said. (Reuters)

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Tymoshenko on June Gas

KIEV -- Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday that Ukraine would make full payment on time for gas imported from Russia in June.

"We are putting gas into storage in Ukraine according to plan. We did so in April and May and made 100 percent payment," Tymoshenko told a news conference broadcast on television. "In June, we have again put into storage 1.1 billion cubic meters. And we will again pay for it without fail." (Reuters)

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For the Record

Egypt will send a 56,000-ton cargo of wheat back to Russia, citing a violation of export terms and conditions, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported Wednesday. (Bloomberg)

AvtoVAZ said Wednesday that it planned to operate one production shift of eight hours a day, five days a week to reduce costs without cutting jobs through February. (Bloomberg)

Gazpromavia plans to order 10 Superjets from Sukhoi by the end of the year, CEO Andrei Ovcharenko said, RIA-Novosti reported. (Bloomberg)