EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Kazakh Minister Pins Hopes On Talks In Row Over Italian-Run Oil Project

EURASIA INSIGHT

KAZAKH MINISTER PINS HOPES ON TALKS IN ROW OVER ITALIAN-RUN OIL PROJECT
10/04/07
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from BBC Monitoring

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Excerpt from report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Almaty, 3 October: Kazakh Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sauat Mynbayev hopes that outstanding issues as regards the Kashagan [oil] project will be settled through negotiations.

"We would like to calmly discuss these issues. We hope that we will not have to resort to any legislative measures," he said, speaking at a conference, KIOGE-2007 [Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Exhibition], in Almaty today as part of a similar international oil and gas exhibition.

"I think that we will try to settle all issues through negotiations, as it has always been in the history of independent Kazakhstan," Mynbayev noted, adding that it was necessary to take into account the interests of all parties during negotiations.

Kazakhstan and representatives from [the Italian company] Eni (the operator of the Kashagan oil project) are holding negotiations to settle the situation because of another delay in starting the development of the Kashagan [oil] field in the northern [part of the] Caspian Sea.

Mynbayev once again expressed Kazakhstan’s indignation at an unjustified increase in the budget for the project.

[Passage omitted: known details]

At the same time, the minister noted that Kazakhstan was ready to accept the increase in certain expenditures on the project.

"Well, we understand that the prices of steel and component parts [for equipment] have increased. But this part is calculable. We are ready to reconcile ourselves to this calculable increase in prices. But questions arise as to why these issues did not emerge one and a half years ago," Mynbayev said.

"In this situation we are forced to hire technical consultants, which we have done," the energy minister said.

[Passage omitted: background information]

Editor�s Note: Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 0541 gmt 3 Oct 07

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