IRKUTSK. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Eastern-Siberian Gas Company has filed for bankruptcy and the court has out it under oversight until April 30, a court statement says.

The company, the statement says, asked for the proceedings itself.

Temporary management has been assigned to Oleg Smetanin. Interfax has been unable to contact him for confirmation.

Smetanin had earlier been involved in the arbitration management of JSC Rusia Petroleum - which sued to hold the license to the Kovykta deposit Irkutsk Region with its A+B+C1+C2 reserves of 1.5 trillion cubic meters. JSC Gazprom won the auction for the company's property complex on March 1, thereby acquiring the license to develop the deposit.

Eastern-Siberian Gas Company was founded on an equal basis in 2004 between the administration of Irkutsk Region and TNK-BP - the operator of regional gasification based on Kovykta. The company board of directors decided in March of last year to sell off the company's assets adjoining Kovykta infrastructure to Gazprom for 9.1 billion rubles. Eastern-Siberian Gas Company sold a section of the Kovykta-Sayansk-Irkutsk gas pipeline (112.5 km) to Gazprom and since January of this year has ceased servicing this section.