/Kazakhstan today, April 7, 05/ - BG Group Plc. is going to concluded the deal on the sales of its 16.67% share in Kashagan field development on the Caspian shelf belonging to it, KZ-today has learnt from an official press release circulated by BG Group Plc.

The press release observes that BG has earned around $1.8 billion from the sales of its share to its project partners - ENI, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total и ConocoPhillips.

The agreement on purchase of 50% BG share, i.e. 8.33% by Kazakhstan was inked in Astana on March 30. The price of the share holding, according to the source, was $630 million.

After the deal the project participants will be the following: ENI (sole operator of North Caspian project), Total, ExxonMobil, Shell (18.52% participation shares), ConocoPhillips (9.26%), Inpex, and КазМунайГаз (8.33% each). Earlier it was reported that BG had announced its intention to sell its share (16.67%) in Kashagan project to all the project participants in equal parts in 2003.

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.

[2005-04-07]