Russia's Rosneft new owner of main Yukos subsidiary

Russian state oil company Rosneft has become the new owner of Yuganskneftegaz by buying 100 percent of the shares of previously unknown Baikalfinansgroup, which had purchased the main subsidiary of Yukos in an auction, the Interfax news agency reported. "Rosneft has bought 100 percent of the shares of Baikalfinansgroup," a spokesman for the company said, quoted by Interfax. He said Rosneft's development projects included "the transformation of the company into a balanced national energy corporation through the development of the company's production facilities." Rosneft, the last major oil company owned by the Russian state, is the seventh biggest group in the sector in Russia. It produced 19.4 million barrels of crude in 2003.