ALMATY - Leading Indian explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) confirmed its interest in buying a stake in MangistauMunaiGas (MMG), a Kazakhstan-based oil producer.
A government source said earlier this week ONGC had approached the Kazakh side over MMG, which has total oil reserves of 812 million tonnes and recoverable reserves of 194 million tonnes.
Narinder Pal Singh, head of the Kazakh representative office of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, confirmed on Thursday his company was eyeing MMG, but said it was waiting for a formal offer from the government.
"An offer will need to come from their side," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an annual oil and gas conference in Kazakhstan.
"If it comes through, of course we'll look at it, we are interested."
Kazakh oil company KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] has received state approval to buy a controlling stake in MMG from Indonesia's Central Asia Petroleum Ltd. It was yet to close the deal.
Gazprom Neft, a unit of Gazprom, had previously said it wanted to offer Kazakhstan a stake in one of its fields in Western Siberia in exchange for a 49 percent stake in MMG, but its offer had been rejected.
Kazakhstan's Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov said India was also negotiating a deal to develop one of the blocks in Kazakh part of the Caspian sea shelf.
"Negotiations are going on," Kiinov told the conference.
Kiinov and Singh declined to name the block. In 2005, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with ONGC on the offshore block Satpayev with estimated reserves of 1.85 billion barrels, but the final agreement is yet to be reached.
A government source said earlier this week ONGC had approached the Kazakh side over MMG, which has total oil reserves of 812 million tonnes and recoverable reserves of 194 million tonnes.
Narinder Pal Singh, head of the Kazakh representative office of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, confirmed on Thursday his company was eyeing MMG, but said it was waiting for a formal offer from the government.
"An offer will need to come from their side," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an annual oil and gas conference in Kazakhstan.
"If it comes through, of course we'll look at it, we are interested."
Kazakh oil company KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] has received state approval to buy a controlling stake in MMG from Indonesia's Central Asia Petroleum Ltd. It was yet to close the deal.
Gazprom Neft, a unit of Gazprom, had previously said it wanted to offer Kazakhstan a stake in one of its fields in Western Siberia in exchange for a 49 percent stake in MMG, but its offer had been rejected.
Kazakhstan's Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov said India was also negotiating a deal to develop one of the blocks in Kazakh part of the Caspian sea shelf.
"Negotiations are going on," Kiinov told the conference.
Kiinov and Singh declined to name the block. In 2005, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with ONGC on the offshore block Satpayev with estimated reserves of 1.85 billion barrels, but the final agreement is yet to be reached.
