MOSCOW - The board of Russia's embattled oil giant Yukos will halt crude supplies to Baltic refinery Mazeikiu Nafta until the end of the year, the Interfax agency reported Monday — just hours after Yukos confirmed a similar move involving a Chinese company.
Yukos spokesmen could not immediately be contacted for comment on the report. The Mazeikiu Nafta refinery is located in Lithuania.
The cash-strapped company is fighting to pay off some $7 billion in back taxes for 2000 and 2001, and has repeatedly warned that bankruptcy or a production stoppage are imminent. Most of its bank accounts and assets have been frozen by the Russian government.
Earlier on Monday, Yukos confirmed it was halting rail shipments to China National Petroleum Corp., a move which would reduce its exports by 100,000 barrels per day.
The company denied allegations its decision to halt shipments to CNPC was politically motivated, but analysts noted the decision coincides with a planned visit by China's prime minister starting Wednesday. Dow Jones Newswires reported that CNPC was in negotiations with Yukos to restart the flow, though Yukos would not confirm that.
The complex web of legal cases against Yukos and its jailed owner billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky is seen as politically motivated punishment for Khodorkovsky's perceived political ambitions. The Kremlin has consistently cast the affair as a clampdown on shady business practices.
On Monday, U.S.-traded PetroChina shares rose 35 cents to close at $52.60 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).
Here’s an interesting question, everyone expected Iraq to heat up as elections grow closer. But have the terrorist attacks in Russia and the proposed missile deployments in Russia’s near abroad, etc. which surely have got both Russia and China’s attention, contributed in any way to the increase in violence in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because if I were Russia, China, Iran or Syria I would consider Iraq an opportunity in which to keep Bush busy and thus attempt to thwart not only his missile deployment plans but anything associated with his bid for world domination including the mess building in Southeast Asia.
I simply have not had much time to keep up with the many unfolding and escalating events of the last few weeks. However one of the fact patterns I was working suggested to me that the unity of many countries with Moscow before and during the start of IraqNam had faded somewhat and they were jockeying for position with each other. If there is any truth to this it would suggest to me that they consider Iraq to be a weight we simply cannot hold much longer without some dramatic escalation in the number of troops which will not happen until after the election. We are in the top of the first inning and everyone has their eyes on the next inning. It is gonna be a long and grinding ball game once things really get going.
I wonder if Moscow would see it to their gain if the Patriot act was enforced more after the next election and we took another goose step away from freedom?
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