Gazprom Neft, the oil division of the Russian group Gazprom, has edged closer to owning Sibir, the AIM-listed oil company embroiled in allegations about loans to one of its biggest shareholders.

Sibir announced this morning that Gazprom Neft has offered to buy close to 35 per cent of the company. It has made an offer for the entire company, excluding shares owned by Bennfield Limited, the Central Fuel company and the Bank of Moscow, in a 500p a share bid which values the company at £1.93 billion.

When trading in Sibir shares was suspended in February following allegations about loans made to Chalva Tchigirinsky, one of the company’s largest shareholders, they were trading at 160p.

Gazprom Neft bought more than 16 per cent of Sibir in April after trumping rival TNK-BP, who had been trying to buy Sibir shares at 430p apiece.

One source said that it was now almost certain that Sibir would be taken private and that the four major shareholders would battle for control of the company between themselves.

State-backed Gazprom Neft is the likely winner. It is understood that the City of Moscow, which owns a stake through Central Fuel, is the most reluctant of the other shareholders to sell its stake.

The saga took another bizarre twist last week when Ruslan Baisarov, an employee of Sibir Energy’s Moscow Oil & Gas Co., claimed that he now owned Mr Tchigirinsky’s 23.3 per cent stake. Mr Tchigirinski has won a court order barring Mr Baisarov from trading the stake.

Shares in Sibir, once the biggest company listed on AIM, were suspended in February after it emerged that Mr Tchigirinsky, a Russian property developer, owes the company almost three times as much as had been thought.

Gazprom Neft, which has declared that it wants to rival oil giants such as BP and ExxonMobil, has been on the acquisition trail as it tries to expand. In the past few months, it has acquired some of Chevron’s Italian assets, as well as Serbian refiner NIS.

Sibir has appointed Jones Day, the law firm, and Ernst & Young, the accountants, to investigate its dealings with Mr Tchigirinsky and his interests during 2008, after it emerged that Mr Tchigirinsky's interests owe Sibir about $325 million, not the $115 million that the company had previously told the London Stock Exchange.

Mr Tchigirinsky had been planning to build one of Europe’s tallest buildings in Moscow before the credit crisis hit. He used his stake in Sibir as collateral against loans from Russian bank Sberbank. Mr Baisarov claims to have bought it from Sberbank.

Bennfield, an investment vehicle owned by Mr Tchigirinsky and Igor Kesaev, his business partner, once owned 47 per cent of Sibir. In January, Sibir dropped plans last month to buy $360 million of property from Mr Tchigirinsky, intended to prevent him from having to sell his stake in the company, which is involved in oil exploration in Siberia and has petrol stations in Moscow. The group had already forwarded the property developer about $115 million in a similar deal in October.

Henry Cameron, the chief executive of Sibir, was suspended in February, pending the results of an investigation into the loans. Stuard Detmer, deputy chief executive, has taken over from Mr Cameron as acting chief executive.

Mr Tchigirinsky, who has disappeared, handed over 2.7 per cent of Sibir back to the company, along with his Cote d'Azur villa and a London mansion, to cover a $400 million debt.

It is understood that Igor Kesayev, his former business partner, has already agreed to sell his 23.5 per cent stake in the company to Gazprom Neft.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax