Putin ready to probe other oil companies

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to go after other oil companies the way he has hammered Yukos, a top Kremlin official has said.

"We must probe everyone, everyone. And if I was responsible for tax discipline -- against the background of Yukos -- I would probe all the other oil companies, too," the head of the presidential Expert Department, Igor Shuvalov, said on the sidelines of an investors' conference, the Moscow Times reported this weekend.

"This is only the start of the road in relation to other taxpayers. Many oil companies used schemes that they call 'tax optimization.' Where it was illegal they will have to pay in full," Shuvalov told investors according to the report.

Shuvalov said multinational oil companies are scrambling to sink big money into Russia despite the Yukos affair. Still, a widening of probes against other oil majors has been a nightmare scenario for investors since the government launched its multi-billion dollar tax case against Yukos last year.

Shares in leading oil companies -- LUKoil, Surgut and Sibneft -- fell following Shuvalov's comments Thursday. Sibneft took the biggest hit, dropping 3.6 percent on the MICEX that day, while Yukos stock rose 1.4 percent.