NARYAN-MAR, March 23 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court will hear on April 20 a Bashneft minority shareholder's lawsuit against the Federal Agency for Subsoil Usage disputing the transfer of an oil deposit license, Bashneft President Alexander Korsik reported on Friday.

The court accepted the lawsuit from Svetlyana Proskuryakova to invalidate the agency's order to reissue a license for a land plot of federal significance, which included the Trebs and Titov deposits, to the Bashneft subsidiary, Bashneft-Polyus.

According to the plaintiff, the agency was not aware and had no proof that Bashneft-Polyus was financially solvent and had a skilled staff while the license was reissued.

Additionally, while reissuing the document, the agency did not take into account the fact that, in addition to Bashneft, LUKoil was also a Bashneft-polyus shareholder.

Eventually, foreign shareholders held more than a 10 percent share in the company. Therefore, the transaction had to be approved by the antimonopoly service. However, it never was.

Proskuryakova also noted that the license was reissued as per the procedure for transferring licenses from a parent company to a subsidiary. However, as another oil company had an over 25 percent stake in Bashneft-polyus, it could not be defined as a Bashneft subsidiary.

Bashneft-Polyus is a joint venture between Bashneft and LUKoil. It is licensed to explore and develop the Trebs and Titov deposits. It also operates a project on the deposits development.