Yukos investor warns oil giants: 'We will sue you for billions'

The owners of Yukos have warned BP and other Western companies they face claims for billions of pounds in compensation if they participate in this week's auction of the former Russian oil giant's remaining assets.

TNK-BP, the Russian subsidiary of BP, said on Friday that it would bid for bankrupt Yukos's shares in the rival Russian oil company Rosneft when they are put up for sale this week. The 9 per cent stake in the Kremlin-controlled company has a starting price of $7.5bn (£3.8bn). BP's chief executive, Lord Browne, met the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, last week to discuss expanding his company's activities in Russia by working with energy suppliers such as Rosneft.

GML, formerly called Group Menatep, still holds a majority stake in Yukos that is virtually worthless. The Kremlin froze the stake, once worth billions of dollars, in 2003 after the arrest of the former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who also headed Menatep. Mr Khodorkovsky is now serving a sentence for tax evasion in a Siberian prison camp, and Yukos has been stripped of its most valuable assets.

Rosneft agreed terms to borrow $22bn from a host of Western banks last week to buy other assets from Yukos, including stakes in several refineries and oil producing units. These will be sold after the Rosneft stake. The lending banks include Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. The loan is the largest ever to a Russian company.

The London-based GML is pursuing a $50bn claim through the European Union Energy Charter Treaty to try to recover its assets. Tim Osborne, the director of GML, said that if the claim failed, the investment group could target companies and banks participating in the Yukos auction instead.

"If anything goes wrong with the Energy Charter claim we would look very closely at who has bought the assets. We could look at a claim in the near future," said Mr Osborne. "All other Yukos shareholders will be looking very closely at any Western company who does acquire the assets. That would be an easy way to get money back. It's nice to know we have something to fall back on."

The first full hearing on GML's claim takes place in June. The court will decide whether to proceed with it by the end of the year.

Mr Osborne added: "No one participating in these actions can get good title. These are stolen assets. You can't get good title if you know the person selling it has not acquired it legally."