* Sanctions bar new debt of longer than 90 days maturity
* Sanctions will "spur" Russia's modernisation - Rosneftchairman
By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - Oil trading operations atRussia's top oil company Rosneft will not be hurt bynew U.S. sanctions, with deals usually coming in below the cutoff point of a 90-day maturity, traders and analysts said onThursday.
The penalties could have an impact on Rosneft's cooperationwith foreign firms on large projects and procurement, they said,but it was not yet clear whether they would or to what extent.
President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Rosneft,Russia's second largest gas producer Novatek and itsthird largest bank Gazprombank on Wednesday over what Washingtonsays is Moscow's reluctance to curb violence in Ukraine.
The sanctions in effect close medium- and long-term dollarfunding, the Treasury Department said. U.S. companies are onlyprohibited from engaging in any "new debt of longer than 90 daysmaturity or new equity" with the energy firms andbanks.
Traders and analysts said trade financing, required to coverRosneft's trading operations, comes in well below that period.
"It appears that there is no immediate effect on operations,because Rosneft's and Novatek's operating interaction with U.S.companies is limited; oil sales are mostly routed via traders.Rosneft's contracts' duration is below 60 days," JuliaPribytkova, a senior analyst at Moody's Investors' Service inMoscow, told Reuters.
"We are not aware of either company planning to tap capitalmarkets in the near term. However, we are looking at the broadereffect on the international cooperation on major projects, andpotential implications for the procurement of equipment."
Rosneft's shares fell by over 4 percent as of 1040 GMT,wiping around $1 billion off market capitalisation on the backof the announced sanctions.
Rosneft's crude oil exports account for a half of some 200million tonnes (4 million barrels per day) of Russia's annualexports. The company offers more that 15 million tonnes of crudeoil at its semi-annual "jumbo" tenders.
"Trade finance at the semi-annual tenders is 30 days.(Sanctions) will not influence it at all," said a trader.
A spokesman for Rosneft declined immediate comment, whileits chairman, Alexander Nekipelov, said sanctions would in facthelp "spur" Russia's modernisation, according to Itar-Tass newsagency.
"ILLEGAL" SANCTIONS
Rosneft's head Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of RussianPresident Vladimir Putin, called the U.S. sanctions on theKremlin-controlled company illegal because it had played no rolein Ukraine.
Rosneft, which accounts for 40 percent of Russian oiloutput, the world's largest, offers heavy volumes of oil and oilproducts for traders. It is also in the process of acquiringMorgan Stanley's oil trading unit.
Last year, Rosneft announced deals worth more than $15billion to sell crude oil and other products to BP, whichnow owns almost a fifth of Rosneft following Rosneft's $55billion acquisition of Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP last year.
Last month, Rosneft also agreed to supply BP with 12 milliontonnes of refined oil products. The deal involves a pre-paymentof at least $1.5 billion arranged by leading global financialinstitutions for Rosneft, which refined 90 million tonnes (1.8million barrels per day) of oil products last year.
BP said the sanctions appear on first glance to focus onrestricting access of targeted firms to medium and long-termU.S. financing.
Analysts say Rosneft is still facing borrowing difficultiesafter becoming heavily indebted following the TNK-BP deal. Itneeds funding to service its debt, which is estimated to be at1.7 times annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation,and amortization (EBITDA).
Analysts at Alfa bank said a lot would depend on how longthe sanctions would last and whether they might be tightened.
"The timeframe for these sanctions is rather unclear, thoughwe do understand that they depend heavily on the ongoingviolence along Ukraine's border with Russia," they said in anote.
"The closure of external debt markets to the company wouldseriously jeopardise its large-scale investment plans, includingbrownfield output maintenance, East Siberia oil greenfielddevelopment, refining modernisation and boosting gas output to100 billion cubic metres by 2020." (Additional reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin; editing by PhilippaFletcher)
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