TMCnet News

Petroleum & Gas: Kazakhstan
[February 13, 2006]

Petroleum & Gas: Kazakhstan


(Business Eastern Europe Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)State-owned KazMunaiGaz has attracted an $800m syndicated loan to develop the giant offshore Kashagan oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea.

BNP Paribas, Societe Generale (both France) and Citigroup (US) are organisers of the loan, which carries an interest rate of LIBOR plus 50 basic points and matures after 18 months.

In May 2005, KazMunaiGaz acquired an 8.33% stake in the project from the BG Group (UK) for an undisclosed price. The market value of the stake has been valued at $1.23bn. KazMunaiGaz has indicated that it may invest up to $1bn in the project.



The other shareholders in the Kashagan field are ENI (Italy), Total (France), ExxonMobil (US) and Royal Dutch-Shell (Netherlands-UK), each with an 18.52% stake, ConocoPhillips (US), with 9.25%, and Inpex (Japan), with 8.33%.

The Kazakh government expects to receive over $60bn from the Kashagan field over the next 40 years. Kashagans recoverable oil reserves are estimated at 7bn-9bn barrels, which would make it the worlds fifth-largest oil field. The consortium plans to begin oil production at Kashagan in 2007 or 2008 (BEE May 9th 2005).


SOURCE: Business Eastern Europe

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]