According to him, the assessment of YUKOS’s recoverable reserves took almost 4 years. The reserves would be included in the company’s balance sheet only after the audit is complete, Mr. Mach added.

Earlier, YUKOS said it had examined the Ob field and the Achimov horizon of the Urengoy field. The assessment of recoverable reserves was 4.7 times higher than the earlier announced sum of proven, probable and possible reserves, in accordance with the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ standards.

According to the examination, Yuganskneftegaz’s recoverable reserves are 12.8bn tons (93.7bn barrels), which is 10.1bn tons (74.3bn barrels) more than the sum of proven, probable and possible reserves as of the end of 2003 (2.7bn tons, or 19.4bn barrels).

Yuganskneftegaz is YUKOS’s largest oil production subsidiary, accounting for about 60 percent of its oil output. All of Yuganskneftegaz’s shares are frozen, as well as the assets of other YUKOS’s production subsidiaries –Tomskneft and Samaraneftegaz. The freeze was imposed by court order as collateral against YUKOS’s RUR 99.4bn tax debt.

Once Yuganskneftegaz’s assets are assessed by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, court bailiffs plan to put the company up for sale. According to Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev, the Natural Resources Ministry can revoke oilfield licenses from Yuganskneftegaz, due to its RUR 3.5bn tax debt. YUKOS managers blame the tax arrears on asset freezes.