MOSCOW, July 24 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court will hear on August 31 Bashneft-Polyus' lawsuit disputing the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use's decision to revoke its license to the Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Nenets Autonomous District and to return it to Bashneft, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Tuesday.

Bashneft-Polyus is a LUKOil-Bashneft joint venture. On May 21, the court ended the proceedings in the lawsuit filed by Bashneft minority shareholders Svetlana Proskuryakova and Pavel Stepanov, having upheld the watchdog's application.

During the hearing in the first-instance court, the watchdog said it had canceled its order to transfer the license to Bashneft-Polyus on May 18.

In its ruling, the court said the co-plaintiffs' claims that their rights and lawful interests had been violated as a result of the order were mere conjectures, as no corroborating evidence had been submitted. The court added that the order did not violate the co-defendants' legitimate rights and their rights cannot be considered as having been violated as the issue was resolved out of court.

At the end of May 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 to develop the fields by offering a bid of 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.