MOSCOW, December 15 (RAPSI) – Bahsneft and LUKOIL have filed appeals against the court ruling which revoked the license for the Trebs and Titov oil fields held by their joint venture, RAPSI learnt in the Moscow Commercial Court on Monday.
The transfer of the Trebs and Titov license to Bashneft-Polus, joint subsidiary of Bashneft and LUKOIL, was challenged by Railya Inozemtseva who who holds 10 shares of Bashneft.
Inozemtseva argued that there were no sufficient grounds for giving the licence to Bashneft-Polus as it was in violation of the tender. The claim aslo contained statement of profit loss that would allegedly result from the license transfer.
In the appeal, Bashneft argued that the plaintiff (Inozemtseva) failed to produce any proof that her rights were impaired in any way, and all the arguments supporting her position were hearsay. Bahsneft rep added that the transition of license will not affect the dividend payments, and that the plaintiff was abusing the right of a shareholder after filing a lawsuit while owning only 10 company shares.
Bashneft was granted the license to Trebs and Titov in 2011 and soon signed a contract with LUKOIL on establishing a joint venture to develop the oil fields. The license was transferred to Bashneft-Polus (25.1% owned by LUKOIL and 74.9% owned by Bashneft) on December 14, 2011. However, Rosnedra cancelled the transfer on May 18, 2012 because the joint venture had no oil processing facilities. Bashneft-Polus, after a long dispute, returned the development license in late May.