July 28, 2004
By Maria Golovnina
NEFTEYUGANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Oksana, who works at YUKOS' biggest oilfield in Russia, fears she is sitting on a time bomb -- and the ticking is growing louder.
"Our boss is in jail. Our firm, Yuganskneftegaz, is going to be sold off. And all these people in uniforms, bailiffs of all descriptions, are all over the place," she said in the Siberian city of Nefteyugansk -- home to YUKOS' main production unit.
"I just feel that one day everything is going to explode, and we will lose everything. There is a lot of fear among us. We don't want our company to fall apart."
Oksana, like many of Yuganskneftegaz's 20,000 workers, sees herself as a victim of the year-long struggle between YUKOS' politically ambitious former boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and a vengeful Kremlin.
Workers in Nefteyugansk, on the banks of the River Ob, have been on edge since last October when Khodorkovsky, YUKOS' key shareholder, was arrested. He is now on trial charged with fraud and tax evasion.
Fears intensified last Tuesday when bailiffs said they would sell Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 60 percent of YUKOS' 1.7 million barrels per day, to recover a $3.4 billion tax debt.
With its bank accounts and assets frozen, YUKOS has said it may have to file for bankruptcy by mid-August. Its shares have slumped by over half in a week to their lowest since 2001.
"This situation depresses me. What's going to happen to us tomorrow?" said Leonid Kim, a production manager at a pumping station under construction near the Ust-Balyk deposit, one of the oldest in the region.
"We've enjoyed two years of stable growth. Our wages have grown to allow us to buy cars and travel. We've been given social benefits like those in big Western companies -- and this is what we get in the end.
"It was naive of us to think this would last forever in a country like Russia."
WAR AND PEACE
Nefteyugansk, built in the 1960s when geologists descended on the marshes of western Siberia to tap the region's vast oilfields, is a quiet town where two in five of the workforce are on the YUKOS payroll.
In the 1990s, a group of investors including Khodorkovsky took over the complex with its huge debt, wage arrears and falling oil output. Intense drilling and investment helped turn Soviet-era ruins into one of Russia's most prosperous firms.
Yuri Lyovin, Yuganskneftegaz's deputy head of production, said the uncertainty and chaos of the 1990s palled in comparison with the problems the company faced today.
"It's either going to be a brutal war -- and any war means losses -- or something mildly bad," he said at the firm's sleek regional headquarters.
"But we'll win. Victory would be ours if they leave us alone and let us do what we are good at -- producing oil."
Workers say monthly pay has risen in recent years from subsistence levels to 15,000 roubles, high for Russia.
"We've gone through much turmoil. All we want now is peace," said Lyudmila Kolenkova, who works at a local YUKOS lab.
TOLERANCE, SPIRIT
Many of Russia's old and poor regard the country's super-rich elite as thieves, and support any action against those who snapped up state assets at knock-down prices in the shadowy privatisations of the 1990s.
Nefteyugansk residents seemed to be more tolerant.
"Whether you like Khodorkovsky or not, he did introduce a lot of social benefits here, like housing allowances, school programmes, mortgages. We appreciate that," said Kolenkova.
Workers in Nefteyugansk and the nearby village of Poikovsky where many staff live, said YUKOS' troubles had brought them closer together.
"Something strange is happening to people. They've started to talk about things like the spirit of YUKOS," said Kim, the production manager.
"I don't know whether this is good or bad. Corporate bonding is not really a Russian thing. But it feels like the people of Nefteyugansk -- from a drilling master to a manager in a big office -- have been suddenly united against a common threat."
But not everyone in Nefteyugansk cares about big politics.
"Like Khodorkovsky, my husband was in jail -- for forging a passport. Both are losers," said Agrafena Pechnova, a pensioner living in a crumbling hut on the outskirts of Nefteyugansk.
"I'm just tired of it. Everyone's talking about it: YUKOS-Schmukos! I was born before YUKOS and I'll die after it."
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