MOSCOW, July 23 - RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has scheduled August 2 to hear the appeal by Bashneft minority shareholders against the ending of court proceedings to dismiss the order by the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use to transfer the license for the Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Nenets Autonomous District to Bashneft-Polyus, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Monday.

On May 21, the court ended the proceedings in the lawsuit of Bashneft minority shareholders Svetlana Proskuryakova and Pavel Stepanov, having upheld the regulator's application.

During the hearing of the first instance, the services representative said that on May 18 it had cancelled its order to transfer the license for the fields to Bashneft-Polyus (a joint enterprise of Bashneft and LUKoil).

In its ruling the court stated that the claims by the co-plaintiffs on the violation of their rights and lawful interests by the disputed order were merely conjectures and no corroborating evidence had been submitted to the court. The court concluded that the disputed order did not violate the co-defendants' legitimate rights and due to its out-of-court settlement, their rights cannot be considered violated.

The watchdog revoked the license on May 18. At the end of the month, LUKOIL stated its intent to challenge the revocation in court. It was later reported that both companies sent a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to reinstate Bashneft-Polyus' right to develop the field.

The Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Timan-Pechora Basin in the Nenets Autonomous District are considered highly prospective. Their C1 reserves are estimated at 78.9 million and 63.4 million tonnes of oil, respectively. Bashneft won the license tender by offering 18.476 billion rubles ($574 million). The starting price was 18.171 billion rubles ($565 million).

Bashneft and LUKoil jointly set up Bashneft-Polyus to explore and develop the deposits.