Can't believe there's not a thread on these already. Well worth having in your portfolio surely.

An impressive breakout.
With small oil companies in focus - especially those with Eastern European exposure, SBE could run quickly to new highs.
This from the website:
"Sibir Energy plc is a UK independent oil and gas production company which listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in 1997 (stock symbol: SBE). As of December 2003, on the basis of its market capitalisation of 297.33 million, Sibir is the 7th largest out of 754 AIM-listed companies.

Sibir has a pure Russian focus with 100% of its reserves and crude oil production coming from the oil-rich Khanty Mansiysk Region of Russian Western Siberia. As at 30 June 2003, Sibir's attributable oil and gas reserves amounted to 1.4 billion barrels.

Currently in production are Magma assets, Upper Salym and Priobskoye group of fields."

"From the beginning Sibir's strategy comprised five components:

To exploit the cheap oil in the ground opportunities existing in Russia


To achieve control over the assets underlying Sibir's Russian investments


To trade part of control over assets in return for the funding of the development of the majority of the assets on a non-recourse basis


To establish Sibir as the natural home for small to medium sized producers in Russia who have no future prospects


To structure Sibir as a unique and robust UK/Russian partnership which enables to access major expansion opportunities in Russia not otherwise available to UK investors
By 2000 strategies 1, 2 and 3 had been achieved and Sibir continues to look for opportunities. Strategy 4 is ongoing. Strategy 5 has been implemented and the results are evidenced by:

- agreement in principle to acquire a 25% interest in British Petroleum downstream network;
- participation in Moscow Oil Company. "

The chart broke out decisively last friday and today's price action implies that things could accelerate now with old highs of 47p being the first real level of resistance. Today's news from Cairn Energy will only add fuel to the fire as investors turn their attention to this sector. Along with JKX, SBE is a quality play with Russian exposure. DYOR as always.

Mentioned in the Guardian today - rumours of positive news coming from the Upper Salym oil field. These may have been held back by the negative news coming from Shell but maybe they are about to be unleashed?

01 April 2004


Notification of Major Interests in Shares
Sibir has been notified today that as of 31 March 2004 Prospector Limited (a company registered in Gibraltar) has an interest in 63,890,000 ordinary shares of 10p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"), representing 3.65 per cent of the Company's issued share capital.

The holding is registered in the name of Parsimony Limited, a nominee company.

Contacts:

Andrew Harrison Sibir Energy plc (020) 7235 3166
Company Secretary

Rory Murphy Strand Partners Ltd (020) 7409 3494
Director

END

Starting to move up.

I can't find much out about Prospector Limited or Parsimony Limited, but they are building up a reasonable holding.



RNS Number:4040X
Sibir Energy PLC
06 April 2004


6 April 2004

Sibir Energy Plc ("Sibir" or the "Company")

Notification of Major Interests in Shares

Sibir has been notified today that as of 5 April 2004 Prospector Limited (a
Gibraltar registered company) has an interest in 71,240,000 ordinary shares of
10p each in the Company, representing 4.08 per cent of the Company's issued
share capital.

The holding is registered in the name of Parsimony Limited, a nominee company.

Enquiries:

Sibir Energy Plc
Andrew Harrison, Company Secretary (020) 7235 3166

Strand Partners Limited
Rory Murphy, Director (020) 7409 3494

both gibralta and cyprus are favourite 'local' sites for russian offshore companies
they can be visited easily from second or third homes either on the island or on mainland spain should need arise

whilst i also am unable to trace the companies i will not be surprised if they turn out to have significant russian interest, but perhaps with 'western' money, that is money that is already OUT of russia

i believe that would be preferable to it being an inside russia operation as this may go through without shareholders getting a fair crack.


rggds

oneill - be thanksful as a tip in I/C is usually the kiss of death for the next few weeks :-)

Regards.

PitBull.

This one looks interesting and is obviously a far safer bet than Petrel. Isnt it going 50/50 with Shell on a field and more or less the same with a Russian partner on another bigger field.

Is the oil due to flow this year from the first field????????????

cheers in anticipation GF.

I think they have great potential. With problems over licenses for Upper Salym looking as though they are behind them and things in Russia looking as though they have settled down a bit I'm optimistic for the future. I think that they have been held back by the problems that shell have been having. Below is an exerpt from the last interim results - it will be intersesting to see if they hit their turnover targets.

'We are very pleased to report that the patience of long standing shareholders has finally been rewarded by two decisive breakthroughs in the course of the past 6 months. First the decision by both Sibir and Shell to proceed with the development of the Salym fields and their large reserve of oil. Second the completion of our transaction with the City of Moscow (the City) resulting in the formation of Moscow Oil and Gas Company (MOGC) and fulfillment of the capitalisation obligations by both Sibir and the City in respect of MOGC. These two events witness the realisation of Sibirs principal growth objectives and establishes Sibir as a fully integrated oil company, participating in the full value chain of the oil industry and in particular playing an influential role in the expanding Moscow fuel market. As an indication of the magnitude of these achievements, Sibir has reasonable expectations that the attributable turnover arising out of its activities will increase from 22 million in 2002 to over 150 million in 2004.'

if these come good then my daughter will be a good catch for someone!

my fingers are crossed

Does anyone have any more information than is on the RNS why these shares are suspened?

Post from another BB - what the effect of this will be I do not know!

From the Moscow Times today:

Monday, Apr. 19, 2004. Page 1

Court Freezes All Yukos Property

By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer The legal noose around Yukos tightened last week after a court banned the oil giant from selling or transferring any assets -- including its shares in Sibneft -- during hearings into a beefed-up claim by tax officials for nearly $3.5 billion in back taxes.

"This is a complete shock," Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore said by telephone Friday. "Essentially we had a maximum of four hours to make the payment," he said. Tax authorities filed the revised charges Wednesday and gave Yukos only until Friday to pay the bill, the company said in a statement.

Yukos said it had done nothing wrong and that it would appeal both the tax claim and the asset freeze.

However, if those appeals are rejected, the company could find it extremely difficult to raise the cash it needs to pay the tax bill, which in turn could conceivably lead to bankruptcy proceedings.

The move could also negatively affect Sibneft, which Yukos acquired 92 percent of last year in a complicated cash and stock transaction worth some $14 billion.

"This could endanger the reversal of the merger with Sibneft," said Steven Dashevsky, head of research at investment house Aton.

Sibneft's core shareholders, led by Roman Abramovich, have been trying to demerge with Yukos since its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested in October. And although a previous court ruling annulled the share issue that Yukos used to swap for 66 percent of Sibneft, which Yukos is also appealing, Yukos still has the 26 percent of Sibneft that it paid $3 billion in cash for.

The tax ruling could also have an impact on the company's daily operations for the first time since the politically charged legal onslaught against its majority shareholders began more than nine months ago.

"This is negative for the whole company," Dashevsky said. "In the normal course of business, you are going to want to sell assets. Last week's ruling may significantly undermine Yukos' operating activities."

But it does not affect the company's ability to continue trading crude and it has no impact on transfers of Yukos shares by the company's minority shareholders, company officials said. Some analysts said the asset freeze appeared to be aimed at preventing Yukos' majority shareholders from transferring assets out of the company to stave off confiscation.

In the wake of the 1998 crisis, Khodorkovsky and his partners provoked outrage in Western financial circles by playing hide-and-seek with Yukos' stakes in its subsidiaries. They were accused of hiding these stakes offshore in an effort to dissuade major creditors like West LB from making good on threats to seize stakes in Yukos proper as collateral for loans the company had defaulted on.

The former Tax Ministry, which is now known as the Federal Tax Service and falls under the purview of the Finance Ministry, claimed in December that Yukos evaded more than 98 billion rubles in taxes in 2000. The company said it simply lowered its tax rate by using minimization schemes that were legal at the time and widely used by other companies.

Yukos attempted to negotiate with the ministry, but the deputy head of the new tax service, Igor Golikov, appeared to end that process Wednesday by suing the company for a new sum of 99.4 billion rubles ($3.5 billion) after completing an additional probe and by taking the matter straight to the courts, Yukos said in a written statement from spokesman Alexander Shadrin.

"We do not have this amount of cash on our balance sheet," Misamore said.

One industry insider with knowledge of the case said on condition of anonymity that the move appeared aimed at forcing the company into bankruptcy.

"This is aimed at bankrupting the company," he said, adding that it was unclear "how the company could come up with the cash if tax authorities presented a similar bill for 2001, 2002 and 2003."

Former Tax Minister Gennady Bukayev said earlier this year that Yukos was being investigated for the years after 2000, but so far no charges have been filed.

Misamore said nothing would surprise him at this point: "We are not aware [of any further charges], but we weren't aware that we were going to get this new tax charge today."

Yukos filed net profits of $1.32 billion for the third quarter of 2003, the latest period for which financial results are available.Tax officials could not be reached for comment Friday. Misamore said it was too early to say whether the asset freeze would hamper the company's ability to raise cash on international markets to pay the tax charge.

Some analysts said the asset freeze and tax claim is the strongest indication yet that the Kremlin has no intention of letting Khodorkovsky and fellow jailed Yukos billionaire Platon Lebedev keep their stakes in Yukos.

"There is no way [they are] going to be allowed to retain Yukos," said Alfa Bank chief strategist Chris Weafer.

"It is now becoming widely accepted on the market that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will lose their stakes in Yukos," said Paul Collison, senior energy analyst at Brunswick UBS. "The question is how that happens."

Market gossip has centered on how the charges against Lebedev and Khodorkovsky, which are similar to Western charges for racketeering, could lead to confiscation of property. Under amendments to the Criminal Code enacted this year, the article allowing for property to be seized was deleted

Thank you

Thanks for that neilpos.

I've quite a bit invested in Sibir and I'm a bit concerned about this news - does anyone have any idea about how this may affect Sibir both the short and the long term?

No idea but I would like to know as well

Generally looking at comments on other BBs the concensus seems to be don't panic - and I would tend to agree - post from another BB below.

The CRUX = "clarification of certain arrangements relating
to the 50 per cent. interest in the Sibneft-Yugra joint venture of Moscow Oil
and Gas Company ("MOGC"). Sibir has a 45 per cent. interest in MOGC"


and refer to the Shares Mag comment "In the Russian oil world, nothing seems to proceed simply from A to B. Perhaps something to do with the Cyrillic alphabet.

The complexities mean there is still a good profit to be had from these shares because the profits will surprise the market when they start to flow this year. At its heart, Sibir is a clever way for Russian oligarch/entrepreneur Chalva Tchigirinski to swing deals without running foul of president Putin. Sibir has a 50:50 partnership with Shell in the huge Salym fields. In the even larger Priobskoye field, it is partnered less happily with Sibneft, the company founded by Chelseas Roman Abramovich.

Sibirs share of total proven and probable reserves is more than 1.4 billion barrels. Applying a price of $4 per barrel still suggests a net asset value which is 10 times the current price.

The joint venture with Shell has recently taken full control of the Salym fields. Previously, they were managed separately while Shell dithered over when to start drilling. Now the partners are committed to spending $1 billion. Sibir needs to negotiate project finance soon to fund its share of the bill.

Sibneft is spending $500 million developing Priobskoye. But Sibir complains it is being too secretive. It has passed the stake to a 50:50 joint venture with the Moscow city council and reckons the politicians will have more leverage with Sibneft.

The joint venture controls the refinery in Moscow and many of the petrol stations.

This year, it will push Sibirs attributable turnover above 150 million. By stages, the company is becoming an integrated oil business. Chalva Tchigirinski still controls 40% of the company,

but other notable backers include Nicholas Berrys Stancroft Trust with 5%. House broker Canaccord, which holds 6% of the total shares in issue, forecasts 2.8p EPS this year, up from an 0.3p loss in 2003. Full 2003 numbers are not expected until June.

Russia taxes its oil sector quite vigorously, but the companys profits are strongly geared to the rising price. Either way, the shares are starting to run as production ramps up at Salym.

It will peak at 120,000 barrels per day in 2009.

There appears to be some talk of an announcement later today or tomorrow.
I'm hoping that the shares were only suspended to prevent panic selling after the news about Yukos and once the position has been clarified the news from Sibir will not be negative (always living in hope).

Just read this elsewhere - maybe something good might come out of this.


The following is from an unamed source and maybe the root of the problem..it is not confirmed as fact.

Basically it evolves around Sibneft withholding information from the MOGC [or Sibir if you like] as is now apparent...and very briefly without boring you and go into details...

Previous production figures as submitted by Sibneft were leaked to be incorrect..

The fields being developed are now known to contain more than was previously thought and are producing more than has been admitted..Sibneft still meet their quota to the Moscow Oil refinery and the MOGC still get 50% of production..but the excess produced, which is alleged to be considerable, is quietly sifted away and shipped to Sibnefts own refinery in Omsk.

That post was on ADVFN - I think that we are heading for a big bust up and who comes out best I'm not entirely sure - can only wait for the announcement now and cross fingers.

Seems to be more people posting positive comments on other BBs - lets hope for an update shortly.

oneill,
For this share - advfn & ample.
Must give news soon.