Company news in 2004

The Russian Government may approve of the international feasibility study for the Kovykta Project by the end of 2004, informed TNK-BP’s Vice President Alistair Ferguson at a briefing on September 15. IFS has been finalized in November 2003.

A meeting of Mr. Alexander Filipenko, Governor and Chairman of the Government of the Khanty Mansiisk Autonomous Area,  and Mr. German Khan, Executive Director of TNK-BP Petroleum Company, took place in Khanty Mansiisk.

TNK-BP’s delegation headed by Mr. Larry McVey, Deputy Managing Director, Production and Technologies, is to visit Novy Urengoy on September 14 in order to discuss the prospects of implementing the investment program of Rospan International CJSC (Novy Urengoy) without participation of YUKOS Oil Company, informed Mr. Vladimir Sudorgin, Deputy Director, Public Relations, of the closed joint-stock company.

Russo-British TNK-BP plans to product $1.6 mln bbd in 2004 (including a stake in Slavneft that extracts some 0.2 mln bbd), said the company’s President Robert Dudley at the presentation for investors on Monday.

The net profit of Russo-British TNK-BP amounted to $1.73 billion on 1H04, informed the company’s CFO Mr. Kent Potter at the presentation for investors in Moscow on September 13. 

Monday, September 13, 2004, TNK-BP hosted a presentation to analysts followed by a Q&A session.

By its development rate, Russo-British TNK-BP may be called a successful player in the Russian petroleum market. The company launched a series of new promising projects that used to be regarded as difficult to implement during the first year of its existence alone.

The Board of Directors of Rusia Petroleum OJSC (a holder of license for the Kovykta gas and condensate field development) has approved of raising a loan from the company’s major shareholder – TNK-BP.

On September 24, top management of TNK-BP, a Russo-British petroleum company, intends to meet with its Western lenders on September 24, in order to coordinate TNK-BP’s reconstruction and re-registration in the Tyumen Region, which is carried out by the petroleum company.

Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) repaid bonds of the 2^nd tranche of the 1^st bond issue and  paid the last coupon in the amount of RUR 54.745 million and additional income of  RUR 221.452 million on them on September 6. The payments totaled to RUR 1.598 billion, informed International Moscow Bank that acts as the underwriter and the payment agent for the first issue.

The other day, top management of TNK-BP, a Russo-British company, announced summarized results for the first year of its existence.  The results are impressive: the international company is one of the high performers in terms of output; it has become the major investor in long-term promising projects, and is aggressively developing production facilities in Russia.

On September 1, TNK-BP signed a framework $1 billion facility agreement with a bank consortium headed by ABN Amro Bank N.V., BNP Paribas(Suisse) SA and Citigroup, writes the news release of the petroleum company.

The  newspaper tells about one of TNK-BP’s projects aimed at drug addiction and AIDS prevention, which are implemented on the basis of open shift–based comprehensive school 7 (OSCS). The Your Choice – Your Future program conducted among teenagers from ill-to-do families was the award-winner at the republican contest of socially significant projects.

Moody's international rating agency confirmed the basic rating of TNK International at Ba2, after TNK-BP’s announcement of corporate reconstruction. In addition, as the agency’s new release says, the Ba3 rating for credit participation notes worth of $700 million, which mature in 2007, was also confirmed.

TNK-BP offered holders of TNK’s Eurobonds to agree upon the holding’s corporate reconstruction on September 24. TNK-BP plans to consolidate 600 enterprises of the group in a new Russian holding, which will concentrate the group’s profits.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that its rating and outlook on TNK-BP (BB-/Positive/--), Russia's third-largest oil company in terms of reserves, production, and exports, remain unchanged following TNK-BP's announcement that it is to restructure its corporate organization.

Moody's Investors Service has today affirmed the Ba2 senior implied rating of TNK International and Ba3 rating of TNK's $700 million Loan Participation Notes due 2007 following the announcement that the TNK-BP group is to be restructured. Moody's believes that the restructure will be of modest rating benefit and maintains its positive outlook on the LPNs.

TNK International Limited (the ”Guarantor”) announced today that it is soliciting consent from holders (the “Noteholders”) of the outstanding US$700 million 11% Loan Participation Notes due 2007 (the “Notes”) issued by Citigroup Global Markets Deutschland relating to a loan to Tyumen Oil Company (the “Borrower”) and guaranteed by TNK International Limited, to consent to certain actions and approve certain amendments (the “Consent and Amendments”) in order to facilitate the reorganization (the “Reorganization”) of the Guarantor’s group (the ”Group”) in Russia. 

Exactly a year ago, a new oil giant appeared in Russia - ТNK-BP. Last summer, when Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair blessed the transaction between the British BP and Russian owners of TNK, the future of the company looked absolute cloudless. The situation in this nation has drastically changed since then. Out of the most expensive “chip” in the Russian stock market, YUKOS turned into a company on the brink of bankruptcy; foreign banks and investors are standing and waiting, and the domestic business resumed capital flight from Russia. ТNK-BP’s top managers felt these changes on themselves. The company has already been checked by the Federal Security Service, the Migration Service, and the Natural Resources Ministry, plus the Dutch ING Bank and the French Societe Generale refused to be involved in the syndicated loan. But Mr. Robert Dudley, President and CEO of TNK-BP, assures that everything is under control and only complains that there are only 24, rather than 30 hours in the day.

Most retail filling stations owned by Orenburgnefteproduct OJSC in the Orenburg Region are to be reconstructed to meet TNK-BP’s standards, informed Mr. Andrey Getinger, General Manager of Orenburgnefteproduct.

TNK-BP is going to sign a contract for turnkey construction of isomerization and alkylation plants at Ryazan Refinery OJSC with АBB Lummus Global, a multi-national engineering company, in order to improve quality of refined products.

The net profit of Novosibirskneftegaz OJSC (a subsidiary of SIDANCO Oil Company, makes part of TNK-BP) in 1H04 came to RUR 101.126 million versus RUR 3.143 million of net losses y-o-y, the company’s official information write.

TNK-BP planning to finalize negotiations with Gazprom on the latter’s joining the project to develop the Kovykta gas and condensate field within two months, informed TNK-BP’s Vice President Alistair Fergusson.

As part of the Children regional program, TNK-BP continues to provide charitable aid to children without parental care and having health disorders in the Orenburg Region.