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India is likely to be a part of the Eurasia Project of the Kazhakhstan government to develop oil and gas assets in the north Caspian Sea.
According to sources, India is keen to participate in the consortium through ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL). The Kazakhstan government had already rolled out a red carpet for India to participate as a consortium partner.
“We got a letter in this regard two days ago. We are looking into it,” D K Sarraf, managing director of OVL, told Business Standard.
The embassy in Astana, the Kazakh capital, has informed OVL and the petroleum ministry about the potential of the projects. A consortium in this regard is likely to be in place by mid-2014, as the country targets to drill at least one super-deep parametric well by 2020.
This comes after Kazakhstan transferred an 8.4 per cent stake in its giant Kashagan oil field to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), playing spoilsport to an OVL deal with US giant ConocoPhillips last year. Though OVL and ConocoPhillips had struck a deal for $5 billion, the local government exercised its preemptive buy-out right and acquired the stake by ConocoPhillips and later transferred it to CNPC. In 2005, too, India had lost a $4.18-billion deal to China from PetroKazakhstan.
The area of the project in the pre-Caspian basin comes under the Western Kazakhstan and Russian region. There are about 300 oil and gas fields in the basin, of which 170 fall in Kazakhstan.
According to sources, through the project, Kazakhstan is looking to attract international exploration and production majors by getting them involved.
The consortium would execute the project during 2015-20, at an estimated cost of $500 million. The area includes big fields like Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashgan.
A similar approach by Kazakhstan in the late 1990s led to the discovery of five offshore fields in the Kashagan Complex, which has potential reserves of 35 billion barrels of oil and gas resources.
According to sources, India is keen to participate in the consortium through ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL). The Kazakhstan government had already rolled out a red carpet for India to participate as a consortium partner.
“We got a letter in this regard two days ago. We are looking into it,” D K Sarraf, managing director of OVL, told Business Standard.
The embassy in Astana, the Kazakh capital, has informed OVL and the petroleum ministry about the potential of the projects. A consortium in this regard is likely to be in place by mid-2014, as the country targets to drill at least one super-deep parametric well by 2020.
This comes after Kazakhstan transferred an 8.4 per cent stake in its giant Kashagan oil field to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), playing spoilsport to an OVL deal with US giant ConocoPhillips last year. Though OVL and ConocoPhillips had struck a deal for $5 billion, the local government exercised its preemptive buy-out right and acquired the stake by ConocoPhillips and later transferred it to CNPC. In 2005, too, India had lost a $4.18-billion deal to China from PetroKazakhstan.
The area of the project in the pre-Caspian basin comes under the Western Kazakhstan and Russian region. There are about 300 oil and gas fields in the basin, of which 170 fall in Kazakhstan.
According to sources, through the project, Kazakhstan is looking to attract international exploration and production majors by getting them involved.
The consortium would execute the project during 2015-20, at an estimated cost of $500 million. The area includes big fields like Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashgan.
A similar approach by Kazakhstan in the late 1990s led to the discovery of five offshore fields in the Kashagan Complex, which has potential reserves of 35 billion barrels of oil and gas resources.
