Moscow, 5 July 2002; Sibneft has signed an agreement for a $450 million loan, with Citibank/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, BNP Paribas and Westdeutsche Landesbank acting as mandated arrangers. The five-year loan has the longest term of any export finance facility received by a Russian oil company since the country’s financial crisis in 1998.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Natexis Banques Populaires are acting as lead arrangers. The loan is structured in two tranches, one with a five-year tenor and the other with a tenor of three and a half years. Proceeds from the loan will be used to fund Sibneft’s capital expenditure, which is set to rise by more than one third this year to $686 million from $492 million in 2001.

Sibneft in March placed a $400 million Eurobond, which was the largest bond issue in Russian corporate history at the time of the placement. The company in December signed an agreement for a $175 million loan arranged jointly by ING Bank and Societe Generale, which was increased to $225 million in early 2002 in response to strong demand.

Contact:

Nick Halliwell
Sibneft
Tel: +7 095 777 3116
nick@sibneft.ru
www.sibneft.ru