An auction of the huge Siberian Kovykta gas condensate field, majority-owned by BP PLC's (BP) Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd., has been postponed by two weeks to March 1, the administrator of the sale said Tuesday.

The strategically important Kovykta--one of the biggest undeveloped gas fields in the world--has been in the sight of Russian state-owned companies since 2007, but TNK-BP's plans to sell the field have failed to materialize.

TNK-BP-- Russia 's third biggest oil producer owned on a parity basis by BP and a group of Soviet-born businessmen--originally intended to send Kovykta's gas to Asia , but those plans were hampered when Gazprom became Russia 's monopolist gas exporter.

The Russian government had repeatedly threatened TNK-BP that it could withdraw the license without compensation, as regulators said it wasn't meeting production targets.

In an attempt to speed up the government's takeover of the project, TNK-BP said in June last year that Rusia Petroleum, the license holder for Kovykta, had filed for bankruptcy. An auction was initially planned for Feb. 15.

State energy companies OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS) and OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) have so far denied any interest in bidding for the field.
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