Four of Russia's biggest energy companies, including OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) and OAO Lukoil (LKOH.RS), have sent a joint letter to the government asking for the possibility to obtain additional credit, a Lukoil spokesman said Tuesday.
Lukoil, Russia's second largest oil producer, has sought between $2 billion and $5 billion to refinance existing loans and to finance new long-term investment projects.
The government has yet to make a decision on the proposal, which was sent in the end of September, but the letter was "perceived positively", the spokesman said.
The loans may be used for "force majeure situations", state-controlled Gazprom said in a statement. A company spokeswoman said Gazprom at present has no need to take additional loans, but added that it finds it "reasonable" to use state funds to finance new long-term investment projects in the energy sector.
The proposal comes as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Tuesday pledged more than $35 billion in five-year loans to support to the country's biggest banks and to help unfreeze credit markets.
Russian stocks have felt the pressure from the global financial crisis and the country's dollar-denominated RTS index is now more than 65% off a mid-May high.
Gazprom's shares, which have lost 61% of their value over the last three months, Tuesday closed at $5.3, up 1.5%. Lukoil's shares have lost 59% of their value over the same period and closed down 4.9% at $38.5 per share.
Russia's oil and gas majors are heavily indebted and plan to invest huge amounts to unlock new fields and keep production stable.
Some analysts said the large integrated Russian energy companies currently aren't seriously affected by the global credit crunch.
"For now, major integrated oil companies don't have problems with liquidity as they've seen big positive cash flows in the first half of the year," said Lev Snykov, an analyst at Moscow-based investment bank VTB.
"But looking forward, a sustained decline in the oil price could lead to problems, as the companies would start generating negative cash flows," Snykov added.