MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is in talks to acquire at least 50 percent of Russian company Taas-Yuriakh, which operates a large Siberian oil field, the daily Kommersant reported Thursday.

Reserves in the Sredni-Botuobinskoye field amounted to 98 million tonnes of oil, according to estimates Kommersant gave, citing several industry sources.

The purchase of a stake of at least half in the oil deposit located in Yakutia, in eastern Siberia, would require the authorisation of the Russian government as it is on a list of strategic sites, said the report.

In 2007, Taas-Yuriakh produced 20,500 tonnes of crude. It expects this to rise to 1.5 million tonnes by 2011 and eventually peak at 6.0 million by 2015, said the daily.

Taas-Yuriakh is owned by Urals Energy (35.33 percent), the British investment company Ashmore Investment Management (10.5), Cyprus-based Yakut Energy (37.37) and Finfund (16.8), according to Kommersant.

Shell already has two oil-producing assets in Russia, namely a 27.5 stake in the giant Sakhalin 2 project and 50 percent in the Salym Petroleum Development Company.