Kazakhstan government purchased 8.33% of BG stake in Northern Caspian project

/IRBIS, March 31, 05/ - According to Kazakhstan today, on March 30, 2005 Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and NC KazMunaiGas JSC (KMG) successfully completed negotiation on purchase of 50% share of BG participation in Northern Caspian project. The project stipulated development of large oil fields inside of Kazakh sector of Caspian Sea. Besides BG there are several other foreign participants of the project: ENI, Total, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell (16.67% stake each) and Inpex, ConocoPhillips (8.33%). According to a source in BG, an agreement on purchase of 50% BG share, i.e. 8.33% by Kazakhstan was inked in Astana. The price of the share holding, according to the source, was $630 million. The remaining 8.33% of BG shares will be equally distributed among Agip KCO shareholders. The consortium Agip KCO (the operator of Kashagan development project) includes BG Group, Exxon Mobil, Inpex Masela Ltd., Phillips, Shell, and Total. The first oil at Kashagan field was discovered in a well "Vostok-1" on summer 2000. The proven field reserves approximate 1.5 billion tons. The consortium plans to commence the commercial production on Kashagan in 2007-2008. [2005-03-31]