Eni-Neftegaz has made the winning bid in an auction for a cluster of assets of the bankrupt Russian oil giant OAO Yukos. The bid was 151.5 billion rubles (5.82 billion U.S. dollars).

The deal means that Eni-Neftegaz, affiliated to the Italian energy giant Eni, now has a 20 percent share in Gazprom Neft, OAO Gazprom's oil unit.

Other assets that Eni-Neftegaz secured in the auction at Yukos' headquarters include gas companies Arcticgaz and Urengoil, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

The starting price was 144.776 billion rubles and the bidding increment was 260 million rubles.

Yukos, once a Russian oil giant, was declared bankrupt in August 2006. Its former chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested in 2003 and is serving an eight-year jail term for tax evasion and fraud.

Source: Xinhua