Moscow. April 7, 2005.  Sibneft has won an open auction for the rights to develop the Salymskiy-5 block in the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District of western Siberia.  The company agreed to pay 20.35 million rubles ($730,000 at today’s exchange rate) for the license block, which holds estimated recoverable resources of 19.6 million tons (146 million barrels) of oil.

In March 2005, Sibneft won a similar auction for the rights to develop the Salymskiy-2 and Salymskiy-3 blocks. Those two fields hold a total of 49.36 million tons (367 million barrels) of recoverable oil resources.

“Sibneft has set a goal of broadening its reserve base in Khanty-Mansiisk, an important oil province just outside of our main base in the Noyabrsk area,” said Sibneft president Eugene Shvidler. “We will carefully study opportunities to further expand our operations in the region.”

Contact:

John Mann

Sibneft

Tel:  +7 (095) 777-3116, 777-3182

Fax: +7 (095) 777-3114

JohnM@sibneft.ru

www.sibneft.com