CNPC and KazMunaiGas to buy MangistauMunaiGas before month end

/INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN, Almaty, July 10, 09/ - Kazakhstan-based KazMunaiGas and Chinese CNPC are planning to close a deal buying a 100 % share in MangistauMunaiGas before the end of the current month. "The deal is at its final stage now. And we are planning to finish all the procedures by the end of the month", - head of KazMunaiGas Kairgeldy Kabyldin said to the media on Friday. The share sale agreement was signed between Central Asia Petroleum Ltd. and Mangistau Investments BV during the visit of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbaev in China. Equal founders of Mangistau Investments BV are KazMunaiGas and CNPC. KazMunaiGas will finance the deal at the expense of the credit granted by the Chinese party in the amount USD5 bn. A part of this amount will be allocated to construct gas pipeline Bayneu-Bozoy- Akbulak. Mangistau Investments BV shall gain control over mining assets of MangistauMunaiGas; Pavlodar oil refinery is not an object of the deal. KazMuaniGas is a domestic operator exploring, mining, processing and transporting oil and gas. A 100 % share belongs to National wellbeing fund Samruk-Kazyna. Central Asia Petroleum Ltd is registered at British Virgin Islands and is so far an owner of 100 % voting shares of MangistauMunaiGas. MangistauMunaiGas is a largest mining Kazakhstan-based company. The company owns 36 oil and gas deposits, of which 15 are being developed. The largest are Kalamkas and Zhetybay. On June 1996 the company received state licenses for 25 years to mine oil and gas at deposits Asar, Burmasha, Kalamkas, Zhetybay Vostochniy, at oil fields Alatobe and Karagie Severnoe, at oil and gas condensate field Zhetybay and Oymasha, and in November 1996 the company was granted a license for mining of oil and gas at Zhetybay Yuzhniy. [2009-07-10]