Russian firm Rosneft, the world's largest listed oil company by output, has asked President Vladimir Putin to sell it the state's 20 percent stake in Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), a letter obtained by Reuters showed. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a Putin ally, said the company needed onshore infrastructure to develop the Black Sea's offshore deposits, in the letter to the Russian president dated October 10.

Rosneft declined to comment. Analysts said they were sceptical about a possible deal, which would increase Rosneft's already high debt levels. "Gross debt in the third quarter was unchanged from the end of the second quarter at $73.4 billion, which is about 87 percent of Rosneft's market capitalisation," Alfa Bank said in a note on Wednesday, valuing the stake at $414 million.

The state plans to sell its stake in NCSP by the end of this year as a part of a wider privatisation drive. State pipeline monopoly Transneft and private investment group Summa Group jointly own 50.1 percent of NCSP, which operates the ports of Novorossiisk and Primorsk which account for more than half of crude exports from Russia. Both companies have been also at odds over the control of NCSP, Russia's biggest crude export operator.

Copyright Reuters, 2013