MOSCOW, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The remaining assets of Russia's bankrupt Yukos Oil Co. have been appraised at more than $22 billion, the company's bankruptcy receiver said Friday.
The assessment, short of the company's $26.6 billion debt, could lead to the company's liquidation, receiver Nikolai Lashkevich said.
Lashkevich said appraisers were not able to make a final appraisal because four foreign Yukos subsidiaries "refused" to provide financial information and six domestic affiliates did not respond, the Prime-Tass news agency reported.
Russian oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom are considered the most likely Yukos bidders, Russia's RosBusiness Consulting reported.
Rosneft is seeking a $24.5 billion loan to buy the remaining assets, the Interfax news agency reported.
The loan, which could be approved by March, would be the largest loan ever issued to a company from a country not part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of economically developed countries.
A Russian court declared Yukos, once Russia's largest private company, bankrupt in August. Former Chief Executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison for financial crimes.
