India loses Kashagan oil field to China

[Edevelop]

NEW DELHI: India's ONGC has lost the giant Kashagan oilfield to the Chinese after Kazakhstan blocked its $5 billion deal to buy US energy major ConocoPhillips' stake in the Caspian Sea oilfield.

ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had in November last year struck a deal to buy ConocoPhillips' 8.4 per cent stake in Kazakhstan's biggest oilfield, Kashagan for $5 billion.

As per Kazakh law, the Central Asian nation had the right of first refusal or pre-emption rights that allowed it an option to step in and buy the stake at the price agreed between the Indian firm and ConocoPhillips.

India loses Kashagan oil field to China - The Times of India

 

[indoPunjabi]

Better luck next time ONGC.

 

[That Guy]

ONGC can't be too happy right now...

 

[beijingwalker]

China to buy stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oilfield for reported US$5b

Xi agrees deal for 8.33 per cent interest in the giant Kashagan field, at reported cost of US$5 billion, supplanting India's bid for a stake
Sunday, 08 September, 2013, 4:10am

President Xi Jinping struck a deal with Kazakhstan yesterday that will give China a stake in its giant Kashagan oilfield.

Under the deal, Kazakhstan's state energy company KazMunaiGas is expected sell an 8.33 per cent stake in the project to state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

Xinhua reported both sides had agreed on China's purchase of the stake, but did not give further details. Kazakh government sources said it would cost China about US$5 billion.

The deal will give China additional clout in post-Soviet Central Asia, and blocks an attempt by regional rival India to get a stake in the project, the world's largest oil discovery in five decades.


"The two countries have agreed on China's shareholding in the development of the Kashagan deposit," Xi told a news briefing after talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev . "The two governments hail and support this agreement."

Oil and gas deals, including one to build an oil refinery in Kazakhstan, were among 22 agreements, worth some US$30 billion, reached during Xi's visit, Nazarbayev said.

He said the agreements on co-operation in the oil and gas sector were essential to his country's development.

"We suppose that the transaction will be closed by late September or late October," a Kazakh official said of the agreement to sell a stake in the Kashagan field.

In July the Kazakh government decided to use its pre-emptive right to buy an 8.4 per cent stake in Kashagan that US oil major ConocoPhillips was selling for US$5 billion.

ConocoPhillips, as part of a process of whittling down its worldwide portfolio of assets, announced last year it had agreed to sell the stake to ONGC, the overseas arm of the Indian state-run oil and gas company. The sale to CNPC would block India's plan to enter the Kashagan project.

Speaking at Nazarbayev University in Astana yesterday, Xi called for the building of "an economic silk road" in the region, involving improvements to infrastructure for navigation from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea and building a transport network to connect east, west and south Asia. Xi also called for the settlement of more deals using local currencies to reduce global financial risks.

In his speech, Xi also assured his audience that China would not seek a dominant role in regional affairs, "nor try to nurture a sphere of influence", Xinhua reported.

Xinhua also said both sides had agreed to fight the East Turkestan separatist movement, which China blames for outbreaks of violence in its far-western Xinjiang region.

 

[beijingwalker]

Kazakhstan giant oilfield: India's loss is China's gain
By PTI | 8 Sep, 2013, 12.00PM IST

NEW DELHI: After blocking ONGCBSE 7.17 % Videsh Ltd's USD 5 billion deal, Kazakhstan has transferred a 8.4 per cent stake in its giant Kashagan oil field to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

The deal transferring the stake in the Kashagan offshore oilfield was signed yesterday during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the energy-rich Central Asian nation, industry sources said.

OVL had last year struck a deal to buy US giant ConocoPhillips' 8.4 per cent stake in the giant Kashagan offshore oil project in the Caspian Sea. While the partners in the project approved the transaction, Kazakhstan in July exercised its preemptive buy-out right and acquired the 8.4 per cent stake ConocoPhillips held in Kashagan.

Kazakhstan's national oil and gas producer KazMunaiGaz bought the stake as a representative of the Kazakh state at the same price as agreed between OVL and ConocoPhillips.

KazMunaiGas yesterday signed a deal to sell that stake to CNPC for about USD 5 billion, they said.

Under the deal, China will help arrange a loan of up to USD 3 billion for KazMunaiGas to help it finance the second stage of Kashagan's development, due to begin after 2020.

KazMunaiGas entered the Kashagan consortium as a shareholder in 2005 and has since then doubled its stake to 16.81 per cent.

Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's Eni, Total of France and KazMunaiGaz each hold 16.8 per cent of Kashagan. Japan's Inpex Corp has 7.56 per cent stake.

The Kashagan field, located in the shallow waters (about 5-8 metres) of the Kazakh North Caspian Sea, is the world's largest current development project.

The field, which is set to produce 370,000 barrels of oil a day, is to start output by September, eight years later than initially planned and with costs nearing USD 48 billion, double the early estimates.

Sources said this is not the first time that OVL has lost out to Chinese in Kazakhstan.

CNPC beat India by agreeing to pay USD 4.18 billion in August 2005 for PetroKazakhstan, then China's biggest overseas oil deal. At that time, Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had stated that India's bid for PetroKazakhstan was thwarted as the "goalposts were changed after the game began."

The Chinese firm had trailed ONGC and its partner Lakhsmi N Mittal's USD 4 billion bid at the close of bidding on August 15, 2005. But post-close of bidding, it was allowed to raise the offer price to USD 4.18 billion, which saw PetroKazakhstan, a Canadian oil firm operating in Central Asia, go to CNPC.

Kashagan, with reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels of oil in place, is expected to produce its first oil this month.

Kazakhstan giant oilfield: India's loss is China's gain - The Economic Times

 

[Masters]

Another slap, another defeat at the of us 'evil Chinis'