Gazprom Neft attempted a merger with Yukos that would have created Russia's largest oil company, YukosSibneft. The first attempt in 1998 failed over a management dispute, while second time round Sibneft's shareholders called off the deal in November 2003 after the federal government cracked down on Yukos despite the process already being well under way. In September 2005, Gazprom bought 75.7% of Sibneft's shares from Millhouse Capital (Roman Abramovich’s investment vehicle) for US$13.1 billion in Russia's largest corporate takeover. In May 2006, Sibneft was renamed Gazprom Neft. In 2006 Alexander Dyukov was elected as CEO of the company and in 2008 he
Gazprom Neft Messoyakhaneftegas, an equally owned joint venture with TNK-BP, holds the licenses for both blocks with Gazprom Neft as operator. The recoverable C1+C2 reserves of both blocks total 620 million tonnes of primarily heavy oil. The fields were discovered in the 1980s and are the most northern-located onshore Russian fields. The Messoyakha oil and gas fields are located on the Gydan Peninsula in the Tazovsky District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area - an Arctic climate zone with undeveloped infrastructure. By 2020 the Messoyakha fields are expected to be producing 8 mln tonnes per year with the first million produced by 2016.