Kazakhstan, Astana, 5 November/ Trend corr. K.Konirova/ Kazakhstan and Russia in any case will seek a compromise to purchase the shares of Oman and BP in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a competent source from oil circles said to Trend . Russia was previously reported to have bought the entire share of Oman in CTC, which made Kazakhstan puzzled because the country also expected to buy a part of the set of shares, exercising the right of priority along with Russia. "The fact is that Kazakhstan insisted on parity distribution of Oman's shares, that is, 3.5% to every country. But Russia wanted the share to be distributed proportionally, that is, Russia and Kazakhstan would get 4% and 3% respectively," the source said. He said that while Kazakhstan was negotiating with Russia and Oman, the time of the deal was expiring, and the Hungarian MOL showed an interest to obtain the set of stocks, offering $700mln requested by Oman. "It is clear that neither side wants to harm the relations and will try to come to an agreement," said the source. In mid-September this year, it was reported that in addition to Oman, the British BP can quit the CTC, which owns 6.6% in the project through two joint ventures - LUKARCO BV (JV of BP and LUKoil) and the Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures (JV of BP and KazMunayGaz). BP owns 46% of LUKARCO and 19% of the Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures. According to the source, now either Russia will not claim to purchase the BP's share, or another solution to the situation will be found.
"An exchange through LUKARCO, which owns assets of other projects in Kazakhstan, is possible," supposed the source. As to BP's share, another source formerly said " Kazakhstan is definitely interested to buy BP's shares," but refused to make further comments, adding that any comments could forward the deal to a wrong direction. Earlier Oman was reported to own 7% of the CPC shares. This spring Oman decided to quit the CPC because of the project's inefficiency. The country estimated its share at $700mln. State shareholders of the CPC - Russia and Kazakhstan - had a superior right to repurchase the shares of Oman. In this case, should both countries decided to purchase the share of Oman, the shares could be divided in a ratio of 4% to Russia and 3% to Kazakhstan. Timur Kulibayev, the head the KazEnergy association, formerly said to Trend that the transaction is of great interest to Kazakhstan. A week ago Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed his country's interest for Oman's shares during his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who had arrived in Astana to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. At the meeting, Nazarbayev posed the issue of repurchasing the Oman's CPC shares. " Oman sells its CPC share. I think we should not give it to anyone," President said. "We will not give it," confirmed Vladimir Putin.
"If Russia has really bought the entire share of Oman, so it turns out that Russia behaved not very good against its Kazakh partners, who also had an interest in those shares. The situation is being clarified now, and only after that a decision will be made and appropriate steps will be taken. Probably, the state company will make a statement," said the source. CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium) owns the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline, with a total length of 1,580 km, which connects the fields in western Kazakhstan with Russia's Black Sea coast. In 2007, the volume of oil pumping through CPC totalled 32.6mln tons.
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