Rockefeller's fund may buy gas assets in Russia

British Empire Special Situations Plc (BESS), the private investment fund of Steven Clark Rockefeller, wants to buy the gas assets of Russia's state diamond monopoly Alrosa, Executive Chairman Dietrich von Erbach-Schonberg was quoted by Kommersant business daily as saying on Wednesday. The fund offered no less than $1 billion for the assets, according to a source close to VTB Capital which temporarily owns the assets, the paper says. British Empire Special Situations Plc is carrying out due diligence of Alrosa's two gas firms, Geotransgaz and Urengoyskaya gas company, and intends to sign an agreement at the end of November and close the deal before February. Geotransgaz possesses reserves of 107 billion cubic meters of gas and 17 million tons of gas condensate, while Urengoyskaya gas company's reserves stand at 94 bcm of gas and 10 million tons of condensate. VTB Capital acquired the assets from Alrosa in 2009 for $620 million, considerably less than the price offered by BESS. The diamond firm is supposed to buy them back next October. Uralsib oil analyst Alexei Kokin says Alrosa sold the gas assets to raise capital but no longer needs to buy them back. Russia's second largest gas producer Novatek is also interested in the assets.