Bailiffs told YUKOS today to halt oil sales, bringing the collapse of Russia's largest oil firm a step nearer and pushing crude oil futures to a record high.
Orders sent to YUKOS' production units bar any property sales, which under Russian law applies to their 1.7 million barrels a day in oil sales, according to justice officials.
But YUKOS said it had not complied, and was continuing to operate while it seeks clarification of what CEO Mr Steven Theede called a "misinterpretation".
"It does not seem logical to me for the bailiffs to take action to immediately stop production," Mr Theede told reporters on a trip to YUKOS' production facilities in Siberia.
It was not clear whether the order might force YUKOS to halt shipments of oil or simply bar the company from signing new supply contracts. Oil brokers said Baltic and Black Sea loadings of YUKOS crude were going ahead normally.
YUKOS pumps a fifth of the crude supply in Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and if its sales stop, the company could fold quickly.
"This doesn't give YUKOS long, because all of a sudden new cash flows stop coming in," said Mr Stephen O'Sullivan, oil analyst at brokerage UFG. "It will bring matters to a head very quickly.
YUKOS shares fell 21 per cent to their lowest since May 2001, leading Moscow's MICEX exchange to suspend them until further notice pending a review by regulators.
They have been in free fall since bailiffs said last week they would sell core unit Yuganskneftegaz, which accounts for over 60 percent of YUKOS' output, to recover a $3.4 billion tax debt for 2000.
US light crude futures rose $1.21 to $43.05 a barrel, the highest since the New York Mercantile Exchange launched the contract in 1983, on fears over the lack of spare capacity in global oil system. "We're going up on the back of the YUKOS news," one dealer said.