Department of Energy and Climate Change has decided to oblige the company LetterOne, controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, sell assets in the North Sea, which it acquired in March in a deal with the German concern of RWE, said on Monday, Reuters reported, citing the statement by the British authorities.

In LetterOne have up to six months to ensure that asset owners change, the ministry said. Otherwise, the energy minister Ed Davey and the UK Climate Change proposed to cancel the license of the Dea, acquired LetterOne, to develop fields in the British North Sea, said the ministry.

Get prompt comments LetterOne agency failed.

Reuters notes that the British Ministry has decided to oblige LetterOne get rid of assets for two weeks before the parliamentary elections in the UK. Office and had previously expressed concern about obtaining LetterOne control fields in the North Sea, which accounts for 3% to 5% of extracted Great Britaingas Ia. Deposits of the company belonged to Dea, the oil and gas "daughter" of the German RWE. At the beginning of March LetterOne bought Dea for € 5,1 Bln. London refused to agree on a deal for fear that in the event of the imposition of sanctions against the new owners Dea production from these fields will be jeopardized. In March, the United Kingdom demanded LetterOne shareholders prove that they have the right to keep the deposits in the North Sea, or to sell them. For its part LetterOne threatened to challenge the British government's decision in court, but still provided the British government requested information on the transaction.

In the middle of March the Financial Times, citing sources reported that LetterOne preparing to sell assets in order to avoid contentious litigation with the Government of the United Kingdom and is already close to that, to hire consultants.

As Forbes wrote that the results of 2015 the shareholders of "Alfa-Group" Mikhail Fridman (37%) and Alexei Kuzmichev (18%) plan to become a tax resident in the UK. Russian tax residents remain German Khan, Pyotr Aven and Andrew Kosogov, nicknameone of them does not own more than 25%, so foreign companies "Alpha" will not be considered KMC.