OREANDA-NEWS. TNK-BP will bid for a lot including more than 500 Yukos gas stations at a state auction this week, a company spokesman said Monday, despite having faced widespread criticism for taking part in a previous sale of the bankrupt oil company's assets, reports The Moscow Times.

The lot, due to be auctioned Thursday afternoon, carries a starting price of 7,7 billion rubles (nearly $300 million). Nafta-Moskva, the investment vehicle controlled by billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, has also applied to take part in the auction, Kommersant reported Monday. Nafta-Moskva could not be reached for comment. Minority shareholders criticized BP after TNK-BP took part in the first in a series of forced bankruptcy auctions to sell off the remains of Yukos. Rosneft won that sale on March 27, buying back a 9,44 percent block of the shares Yukos held in the state-run oil company.