Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko and OAO Gazprombank plan to buy half of Petromir, the license holder of an East Siberian natural-gas deposit, from OAO Stroytransgaz, the engineering firm they control, Vedomosti said, citing an unidentified person.

Stroytransgaz will sell its half of Petromir to help repay debt to Gazprombank, Vedomosti said, citing the person. The pipeline-building company had 34.8 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) of loans outstanding at the beginning of the year, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net