The head of Russia's fourth-largest oil producer, Surgutneftegas, Vladimir Bogdanov, said on March 11 his company has no plans to sell its stake in Hungary's MOL despite standoff between the two companies.
"We are happy (with the stake), the shares are on the rise. Why sell?" Reuters quoted Bogdanov as telling reporters.
Surgut, a company that does not disclose its financials to international standards, bought the stake from Austria's OMV for € 1.4 billion ($1.90 billion) last year in a deal which angered MOL and the Hungarian government.
Last month, MOL chairman Zsolt Hernadi told Reuters that MOL ruled out talks about strategic co-operation with the Russian company as long as Surgut's intentions over its MOL stake were not clear.
The Russian company was blocked from taking part in MOL's annual general meeting last year and filed a legal claim to have all AGM decisions overturned.
Surgut has said the purchase was part of its strategy to expand abroad but MOL feared it was acting on behalf of the Kremlin to strengthen its grip over pipelines in Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile Surgut also said today that it has earmarked around 118 billion roubles ($3.97 billion) for its 2010 investment programme.
Bogdanov said 28 billion roubles are set to be spent on the downstream sector, while 20 billion will go on exploration.
Surgut is free of debt and analysts have estimated it had a cash pile of more than $20 billion at the end of last year.
