Shell"s subsidiary in Russia could not immediately be reached for comment, but Interfax news agency quoted Shell Russia spokesman Maxim Shub as saying that Shell was generally interested in buying up petrol stations.

Shell "has always considered Russia a strategic market in both upstream and downstream and is always looking for new opportunities for development, including in the petrol station market," Shub said.

Vedomosti said that Shell could be up against state-controlled Russian oil group Rosneft and British-Russian oil major TNK-BP at Thursday"s auction.

PIN/BUSREP.CO.ZA