The Lithuanian government said it was not happy with Yukos' work at Mazeikiu Nafta, an oil refinery and terminal, and has held talks with companies that want to buy Yukos' 54 percent stake

The Lithuanian government said it was not happy with Yukos' work at Mazeikiu Nafta, an oil refinery and terminal, and has held talks with companies that want to buy Yukos' 54 percent stake. "We have been visited by Russian oil companies that want to buy Yukos' shares and need our approval," Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas said during a news conference Thursday. "Our prime concern is that Mazeikiu Nafta work stably." Mazeikiu Nafta, which is 41 percent owned by the state, is the biggest company by revenue in Lithuania. Yukos has struggled, and has so far been successful, to maintain crude supplies to the unit amid a dispute more than $27 billion of back taxes that the Russian government claims Yukos owes. LUKoil has for several years repeatedly expressed interest in buying Mazeikiu Nafta. "If we receive an official offer to buy shares in this plant, we will study it with great interest," LUKoil spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said in an interview. He declined to say whether any negotiations had taken place. TNK-BP and LUKoil have both formally offered to buy Mazeikiu Nafta from Yukos, Interfax reported Thursday, citing Yukos deputy chief executive Alexander Temerko.