Putin Says He Knows Mystery Buyer

President Vladimir Putin reassured the world Tuesday that the new owners of Yuganskneftegaz had many years of experience in the energy sector, but stopped short of disclosing who was behind the mystery shell company that won the producer of 10 percent of the nation's oil output.

"As far as I know, the shareholders of Baikal Finance Group are individuals who have been working in the energy sector for many years," Putin said during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, making his first comments about an auction that shocked investors and the U.S. government by awarding Yukos' prize asset to a shell company registered at the same address as a grocery store in Tver.

Putin's remarks were the first time a Russian government official has acknowledged to knowing who is behind Sunday's winning bidder, Baikal Finance Group. On Monday, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said he had no idea.

Despite threats of new international legal action from Yukos on Monday, Putin defended the sale as being in accordance with Russian law and indicated that other energy companies could eventually take ownership or management of Yugansk.

"As far as I am informed, [the shareholders] intend to build relations with other energy companies in Russia with interest in this asset," he said, adding that the law allows for "all companies to work with the asset after the sale."

In a sign he is looking for allies, he also said that Chinese oil major CNPC could take a role in developing the unit.

But the U.S. government increased its criticism of the sale. The White House issued a strong statement Tuesday protesting the auction, which came as the culmination of an 18-month campaign against Yukos that is widely seen as a state attempt to take over the company and eliminate any political threat posed by its jailed founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"We are disappointed that Russia went ahead with the auction of the Yukos subsidiary," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We have communicated to the Russian government repeatedly that its handling of the Yukos matter could have a chilling effect on foreign investment in Russia and affect its role in the global economy."

U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil had been on track to buy a significant stake in Yukos before Khodorkovsky's jailing in October last year.

The U.S. State Department mocked the sale Monday, saying it had heard "amusing" stories about who was behind it.

Analysts believe that Baikal is a Kremlin-arranged front company for state-controlled Gazprom that the state created in an effort to sidestep a U.S. court order barring Gazprom from participating in the sale. It is widely expected that Baikal could transfer control of Yugansk to Gazprom if legal risks are cleared.

Gazpromneft, Gazprom's oil arm, had been widely expected to win the auction, but its representatives did not bid even though they participated after a Houston court issued a surprise ruling in favor of an emergency petition filed by Yukos to delay the sale. Gazprom's participation, however, raised the prospect that its assets could be seized abroad if it is found to be in contempt of the U.S. court ruling. Gazprom had been planning to build liquefied natural gas plants on the U.S. coast together with ChevronTexaco.

Gazprom, however, said Tuesday that it sold Gazpromneft to a nonaffiliated company two days before the auction, in a move clearly aimed at further shielding the company from potential legal repercussions.

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Gazpromneft did not hold any assets when it was sold Friday. "It was still an envelope that was yet to receive Gazprom's oil assets and the state's shares in Rosneft," he said.

He said Gazprom would decide "within days" on the creation of another company into which Gazprom's liquid assets and the state's 100 percent stake in Rosneft could be transferred. "This will have no impact on plans to increase the state's stake in Gazprom to a controlling one, or on the takeover of Rosneft and the liberalization of the share market," he said.

Yukos threatened further legal action Tuesday, saying it had served notice that the auction violated Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings started in Houston and that it would seek $20 billion in damages from parties involved in the sale.

Gazprom has denied any affiliation with Baikal, but lawyers said Yukos could still pursue Gazprom if it eventually ends up owning Yugansk, raising the possibility that Gazprom assets abroad might be seized.

The eventual owner of Yugansk could also see its exports frozen as soon as they leave Russian territory. Analysts said one way Gazprom could sidestep this potential legal nightmare would be to keep Yugansk in state hands, lending it the added protection of sovereign immunity, while farming out management to Gazprom.

Menatep lawyer Robert Amsterdam said Tuesday that he had been seeking counsel with German lawyers this week over potential legal action, but he would not confirm that he was seeking advice on how to enforce a U.S. contempt of court ruling in the German legal system.

Germany is in a critical position should any attempt be made to seize Gazprom or Yugansk shipments. Gazprom and Yugansk provide a significant part of its gas and oil needs.

Amsterdam said the use of Baikal to hide its owners was a joke. "They could have sold it to the Vatican and it still would not have been clean," he said. "The Kremlin is engaged in a massive campaign of asset laundering and reputation laundering."

With Yukos' legal campaign mounting, Putin appeared to seek an ally in China.

"We don't rule out that the Chinese state energy company CNPC could take part in the work of [Yugansk]," he said, adding that CNPC had not participated in Sunday's auction and had earlier signed off on an energy cooperation agreement with Gazprom.

But market insiders speculated that his comments were more likely aimed at trying to push Schroeder into giving more backing for the sale, possibly by bringing German utility giant E.ON into a consortium with Gazprom that would eventually own the unit. Any role for CNPC would probably be minimal because of Russia's long-held geopolitical fears of China's clout increasing, analysts said.

"Their participation in the Russian oil sector is to be expected even if in a limited form," said Valery Nesterov, oil and gas analyst at Troika Dialog.

"Putin is trying to persuade Schroeder to let E.ON into a consortium with Gazprom to add legitimacy to the sale," said Stanislav Belkovsky, a Kremlin insider and head of the Council for National Strategy.

Schroeder has been one of the few international leaders to back Putin's handling of the Yukos affair.

On Tuesday, Schroeder said the Yugansk auction was "an internal affair," Interfax reported -- a statement that came in sharp contrast to the White House statement.

Menatep lawyer Amsterdam accused Schroeder of turning a blind eye to problems with the rule of law in Russia in hope of gaining trading favors from Putin. "Germany is a critical battleground as the German government has sold out its commitment to the rule of law," he said.

Putin's remarks about Baikal's shareholders came as two newspapers, Vedomosti and Gazeta, identified the two officials representing Baikal at the auction as being employees of Surgutneftegaz, a Kremlin-friendly oil firm that has significant cash reserves. Vedomosti said a mid-level Surgut manager, Igor Minibayev, was one of Baikal's representatives, while its first deputy financial department head, Valentina Komarova, was Minibayev's consultant.

Analysts, however, said that even if this was the case, it was unlikely that Surgut would end up the eventual sole owner of the producer, especially given Putin's comments in which he did not designate the company as being behind Baikal.

"This doesn't mean anything," said Adam Landes, an oil and gas analyst at Renaissance Capital. "If the Kremlin was confident with Surgut being the end owner of this -- a business that Surgut has coveted for years -- there's no way Surgut would hide.

"It's possible, however, that it could end up part of a Gazprom-led consortium," he said.

Surgut officials could not be reached for comment.

Interfax, meanwhile, reported that officials from one of Rosneft's main production units had flown in Tuesday to Nefteyugansk, where the oil unit is located. Rosneft spokesman Alexander Stepanenko denied the report.

Staff Writer Valeria Korchagina contributed to this report.