Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) said Tuesday it could repay the remainder of the $2.5 billion loan it took out to purchase a stake in Sibneft (RTS: SIBN) oil company ahead of schedule. Energy giant Gazprom controls over 75% of the shares in Sibneft, one of the world's 20 largest oil companies with proven reserves of over 4.5 billion barrels, after acquiring a 72.7% stake in September 2005 for $13.1 billion. To finance the deal, Gazprom took out a syndicated loan facility. Gazprom, the world's third largest company by market capitalization ($300 billion), has already repaid $10.6 billion of the loan, but still has to redeem the remaining $2.5 billion. "We do not exclude the probability of early repayment," said Andrei Orlov, the manager of Gazprom's securities department, adding that everything would depend on the availability of cash.