MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian government expanded its control of the nation’s oil and gas riches Tuesday when a subsidiary of state-controlled Rosneft purchased one of the last assets of the bankrupt Yukos oil group at what appeared to be a bargain price. Rosneft paid 197.8 billion rubles ($7.6 billion) to buy nearly 10 percent of its own shares that had been held by OAO Yukos. That was just $90 million above the starting price – or nearly 10 percent less than the value suggested by the closing price Monday. The subsidiary, RN-Razvitiye, won after the 10th round in an auction with just two bidders that took place at Yukos’ largely deserted, marble and glass-clad office building in downtown Moscow. The sale also included a small bundle of promissory notes. Journalists and television crews crowded the company’s conference hall on Tuesday. Formerly, it was the venue for managers to tout the triumphs of what was Russia’s biggest oil producer. But the hall became the scene of its dismemberment, with footage of the first liquidation auction broadcast to plasma screens mounted on the walls. The process lasted just a few minutes: four men in dark suits sat behind two tables covered with orange tablecloths.
