Sibir today announces the launch of High Court proceedings against, amongst others, two former directors and publishes a trading update for the fourth quarter 2008.
High Court proceedings
Sibir and two of its subsidiaries (the "Sibir Claimants") have commenced proceedings in the High Court in connection with the unauthorised payments which were referred to in its announcement dated 19 February 2009 (the "Unauthorised Payments").
The proceedings are against former directors, Chalva Tchigirinski and Henry Cameron, Gradison Consultants Inc (a company owned by Mr Tchigirinski) and Derbent Management Limited. Mr Cameron has, as a result of his conduct, been dismissed by the Company with immediate effect.
The total amount claimed by the Sibir Claimants is currently not less than US$328 million but it is anticipated that the total claims will, in due course, rise to approximately US$400 million.
The High Court has granted a worldwide freezing order under which, pending a full hearing of the claims, Mr Tchigirinski is prevented from disposing of his assets to the extent the value of his remaining assets falls below £250 million. Gradison is prevented from disposing of its assets to the extent the value of its remaining assets falls below £120 million.
As a further result of the ongoing investigation into the Unauthorised Payments, the Company has informed the Financial Services Authority (the "FSA") that it believes that the price of its shares may have been manipulated between approximately 16 October 2008 and 31 October 2008 and that a significant number of the transactions in its shares between those dates was conducted using money that had been taken from the Company.
Sibir expects that its shares will remain suspended from trading on AIM for the foreseeable future.
Trading update
Operationally, the company continues to perform profitably and is cash generative. Total crude oil production for Sibir in Q4 2008 increased 31% to a record 7.1 million barrels compared to 5.4 million barrels in Q4 2007. For the full year 2008 Group crude oil production totaled 25.3 million barrels, representing a 42% increase over the 17.8 million barrels produced in 2007. The Group’s average daily rate of crude oil production in Q4 2008 reached 76,698 barrels of oil per day (bopd) compared to an average 58,335 bopd in Q4 2007.
The weighted average netback on domestic and export crude sales after transportation and export duty and before mineral extraction tax was US$12.9 per barrel in Q4 2008 and US$35.5 per barrel for the full year 2008.
In the downstream, Sibir’s trading operation processed 9.7 million barrels of crude at the Moscow Refinery in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 34% from 7.3 million barrels in Q4 2007. For the full year 2008 Sibir processed 35.8 million barrels at the Moscow refinery compared to 21.4 million barrels in 2007. Gross margins on product sales from processing averaged US$16.6 per barrel in Q4 2008 and US$16.7 per barrel for the full year 2008, which compares with US$6.5 per barrel in 2007.
Stuard Detmer, Acting CEO, Sibir Energy, commented: ‘The launch of the legal proceedings announced today underlines our determination to recover on behalf of our shareholders the funds that were taken from the company. Our investigation into the events of last year is ongoing and the results will be reported as soon as is practicably possible. In the meantime we will continue to build on the record operational performance the company achieved in 2008.’
Statpro
