OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2007.  Siberian Coal and Energy Company (SUEK) for the first time publicly admitted that the formation of a joint venture with Gazprom to pool the two companies' coal and power industry assets was taking longer than anticipated.

Gazprom and SUEK announced the joint venture plans in February this year. Companies will  close the transaction during the first half of 2007. At one of their first meetings, the companies laid down a plan of action, according to which a list of assets for inclusion in the joint venture was supposed to be ready by April 1.

At the beginning of May that the process was lagging behind schedule, partly due to differences between the companies on how the joint venture should be run.