11-01-05 Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref backs the idea of privatising Rosneft and Yuganskneftegaz.
"I think that Rosneft and Yuganskneftegaz, should it become a state-owned company, need to be privatised," Gref said.

Putting these assets in private hands is crucial to their effective development, he said. "If the state in Russia continued to hold a monopoly in the oil sector, we would now be witnessing the same slow pace of growth that exists in the gas production sector. Oil output has grown by about 10 % over the past few years," the minister said.
However, the way the oil sector was privatised "was not quite appropriate," Gref said. He expressed hope that a new bill on subsoil reserves will be passed in the first half of the year, which will provide the state with "a wide range of instruments" for regulating the oil sector.

"I view the state's direct involvement in the oil sector as unjustified today," the minister said. "The fact that Gazprom is not effective is obvious. And no administrative levers can help make such a huge company more effective. Market mechanisms need to be involved, which requires a reorganization of the gas sector," he said.
Gref underscored the need to provide independent gas producers with transparent and equal access to the country's gas infrastructure.

"Our estimates suggest that independent producers are capable of supplying up to 20 % of the gas. But they are being taken over by Gazprom now," he said. Gazprom is not the only example of the state's ineffective management principles, he said.
"Our state is not effective today. Neither are most state-owned companies," Gref said.