YUKOS Wins Important Victory in Dutch Court

Today, the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam confirmed the judgment of the District Court of Amsterdam of November 24, 2005. The Court of Appeal refused to grant freezing orders to Yuganskneftegaz against YUKOS Oil Company, which would have prevented the Russian oil company from selling its non-Russian subsidiaries. As a direct result of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, YUKOS Oil Company can continue, unhampered, its strategic divestment of its non core, non Russian assets.

Commenting on the judgement, YUKOS Oil Company, Chief Executive Officer, Steven Theede said: ?This is a satisfactory verdict. The judgement confirms that the management and Board of Directors of YUKOS Oil Company have the very best intentions in protecting the interests of all stakeholders and creditors. This judgement will enable the Company to continue the transparent, competitive and exhaustive processes that we have put in to place to achieve the sale of our non-core, non-Russian assets, the proceeds of which will be used to meet creditor liabilities.?

The company believes that the original court action undertaken by Yuganskneftegaz, which is now the property of the wholly state-owned Rosneft, was introduced for questionable motives, most specifically to frustrate the management?s strategy to meet its responsibilities to all stakeholders and address creditor liabilities in Russia and internationally.

YUKOS Oil Company is presently managing the divestment of its 53% stake in the Lithuanian refinery, Mazeikiu Nafta, and its 49 % stake in Transpetrol which owns pipelines in Slovakia. Another subsidiary sale for Davy Process Technology Switzerland is close to completion and the sale of Davy Process Technology Limited in the UK was completed on 1 February 2006.

In response to the appeal instituted by Yuganskneftegaz, YUKOS had also submitted some complaints against the judgment of the District Court, relating to conservatory attachments on the shares and depository receipts in a Dutch subsidiary ("Yukos International UK B.V."). The Court of Appeal rejected these complaints as well and left the conservatory attachments in place. However, this does not harm the sales process. The District Court had already lifted attachments on the foreign subsidiaries.