While there are no talks with a third party at this time and any agreement would be a long way off, the most likely candidates to buy Sibneft are French oil company Total SA and US oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp., the newspaper reports.

Despite the potential hurdles around YUKOS and Sibneft, the attractions of a big Russian oil deal are huge for international oil companies, which have struggled in recent years to replenish their reserves. Russia offers some of the largest oil reserves currently available to private investors. For potential buyers, the current uncertainty actually could be a help, since it has reduced the prices of Russian assets. Total, Chevron and Royal Dutch/Shell Group were considering acquiring Sibneft before YUKOS acquired it last year, the newspaper notes.

If YUKOS sold its Sibneft stake to a third party, the new owner would have to deal with Roman Abramovich and the other controlling Sibneft shareholders, who likely would expect part of the proceeds.

For its part, YUKOS has made clear that any deal will have to take into account the interests of all shareholders. That would include ensuring they get their share of any potential premium from selling Sibneft to a foreign partner.

Another problem would be to win the Kremlin’s approval of the deal. However, the state-owned oil company Rosneft seems ready to help “the third party”. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rosneft is seeking to put together a consortium with one or more foreign partners to buy Sibneft, offering its participation as a form of political cover.

In early October, YUKOS announced the completion of its merger with Sibneft, having acquired a 92 percent stake in Sibneft. According to the merger agreement, YUKOS purchased 20 percent minus one share of Sibneft for $3bn, and another 72 percent plus one share was swapped for a 26.01 percent stake in YUKOS. As a result, Sibneft shareholders were to control 26.01 percent of the united company.

However, on November 28, Sibneft announced that the deal had been suspended.