A scene on the Northern Buzachi oil field in Kazakhstan (ITAR-TASS)
December 13, 2006 -- Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov today said the government a month ago authorized a Polish firm to purchase oil stakes in the country.
Izmukhambetov said the government gave its consent after Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company, KazMunaiGaz, said it was not interested. He gave no further details.
Poland's "Gazeta Wyborcza" daily has identified the company as Petrolinvest, which is owned by the billionaire Ryszard Krauze.
The newspaper in August reported that Petrolinvest had acquired a 35 percent stake in one and 50 percent stakes in another thee Kazakh companies that owned oil fields with total estimated reserves of two billion barrels.
(Interfax-Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Today, oil.ru)
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