MOSCOW, August 2 - RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has postponed until August 30 its hearing of the motions to terminate the proceedings in a complaint filed by the Bashneft minority shareholders against the watchdog's order to grant Bashneft-Polyus licenses to the Trens and Titov oil fields, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Thursday.
The hearing was adjourned to allow the parties time to examine one of the motions against the trial court judgment.
Bashneft-Polyus is a LUKOil and Bashneft joint venture.
On May 21, the court ended the proceedings in the lawsuit filed by Bashneft minority shareholders Svetlana Proskuryakova and Pavel Stepanov, having upheld the watchdog's motion.
During the trial court hearing, the Federal Agency on Mineral Resources said that it had canceled its order to transfer the license to Bashneft-Polyus on May 18.
In its ruling, the court said the co-plaintiffs' claims that their rights and lawful interests had been violated as a result of the order were mere conjectures, as no corroborating evidence had been submitted. The court added that the order did not infringe on the co-defendants' rights and their rights cannot be considered as having been violated as the issue was resolved out of court. In late May, LUKOIL voiced its intent to challenge the revocation in court. It was later reported that both companies sent a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to reinstate Bashneft-Polyus' right to develop the field.
The Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Timan-Pechora Basin in the Nenets Autonomous District are considered highly prospective. Their C1 reserves are estimated at 78.9 million and 63.4 million tonnes of oil, respectively. Bashneft won the license tender to develop the fields by offering a bid of 18.476 billion rubles ($ 569.63 million), while the starting price was 18.171 billion rubles ($ 560.23 million).
Bashneft and LUKoil jointly set up Bashneft-Polyus to explore and develop the deposits.