Gazprom acquired NTV, Russia's only nationwide state-independent television station from Vladimir Gusinsky's company, Media-Most holdings. In 2002, the Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Media acquired all of Gusinsky's shares in companies held by Media-Most. In September 2005, Gazprom bought 72.633 percent of the oil company Sibneft for $13.01 billion. Sibneft was renamed Gazprom Neft. The purchase was aided by a $12 billion loan. Gazprom became Russia's largest company. On the day of the deal the company worth was valued at £69.7 billion (US$123.2 billion.) In December 2006, Gazprom signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, to take over fifty percent
Central Energy Italian Gas Holding having a personal interest in the contract. Robert Nowikovsky, an Austrian lawyer linked to Russian operations, was one of the company's directors. The 2008 article "Berlusconi, Centrex, Hexagon 1 and 2 and Gazprom" suggested: Central Energy Company Inc Central Energy Italian Gas Holding Central Energy Italian Inc is a gas distribution and trade company. It is a part of the Central Energy ], a company related to Gazprom. A deal between Italian Eni and Gazprom picked CEI as a partner delivering gas to Italy. Investigations by members of the Italian parliament revealed that Bruno Mentasti-Granelli, who is known as a