TNK-BP is once again thinking of buying the assets of the natural gas distributor GAZEX, Kommersant reports.

TNK-BP’s Executive Vice President for Natural Gas and Electric Power Supply Mikhail Slobodin announced that the company keeps negotiating for the purchase of GAZEX from IES Holding. It is not quite clear just what TNK-BP might buy, since it was Gazprom that had already reached an agreement on buying the company’s energy assets in the summer. Gazprom’s division Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Moskva is to be involved in this transaction. In fact, the company already bought a 14.2% shareholding in Yekaterinburggaz in September.

Itera was another bidder for GAZEX, but the company’s offer left IES Holding uninterested. Itera refused to comment on whether they were planning to keep fighting for GAZEX, but one of Kommersant’s expert sources did say Itera was hoping to get a third of GAZEX’s assets based in Sverdlovsk Region.