AO Yukos Oil to buy rival OAO Sibneft

MOSCOW, April 22 (UPI) -- AO Yukos Oil Co., Russia's largest oil producer, agreed to buy rival OAO Sibneft, in a deal that would create the world's fourth-largest oil company, the companies announced Tuesday.

Yukos will by 20 percent of Sibneft for $3 billion, the companies said.

"The new industrial giant will reach higher business efficiencies moving closer to our goal of becoming a leader of the global energy market," Yukos Chief Executive Officer Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in a statement.

Khodorkovsky will become head of the new company, and Sibneft President Yevgeny Shvidler will become chairman of its board of directors, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

The new company will be named YukosSibneft. The combined company will pump 2.3 million barrels of oil a day and account for more than a quarter of crude oil production in Russia.

Yukos is the second-largest oil company in Russia. Its 2002 output was 69.5 million tons of oil and 2.39 billion cubic meters of gas. Its oil refineries processed 32.9 million tons of oil in 2002.

Sibneft is the nation's fifth-largest oil company. Its 2002 oil output amounted to 23.3 million tons.