Russian police arrested the manager of a joint venture between embattled oil firm YUKOS and Hungary's MOL on Thursday, a YUKOS source said.
The source said Oleg Vitka, head of the Zapadno- Malobalykskoe unit in Siberia's Khanti-Mansiisk region, had been detained for two months under a court order issued over violations of licence conditions.
"Any Russian oil company battles with the same problems, which have to be resolved with time and an agreement to change the licence agreement," said the source.
"If this is really a violation of the law and a pretext for arresting management, then this (arrest) is obviously overkill."
YUKOS , once Russia's top producing oil company, has been subject to a judicial onslaught -- provoked, analysts say, by the Kremlin's dislike of major shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky's political ambitions.
Khodorkovsky is now in jail, and the company's main production unit was sold off to a state company to pay off part of a giant back tax bill assessed against YUKOS.
MOL, which has 50 percent in Zapadno-Malobalykskoe, previously bought a large part of its crude from YUKOS, but switched to rival LUKOIL after the sale of the Yuganskneftegaz unit left YUKOS unable to meet its obligations.
The heads of Yugansk and remaining YUKOS unit Tomskneft have been previously accused of unlicensed production.
Source: Reuters
11.03.2005