India may bid for Kazakh Oil sought by CNOOC
(Bloomberg.com)
Updated: 2006-01-13 19:08

"Two Years of Talks"

"We have been negotiating the sale of the company for two years," Irina Gavrilova, a spokeswoman for OJSC Karazhanbasmunai, Nations Energy's main asset in Kazakhstan, said in a phone interview. "We have had talks with a lot of foreign companies and we have not decided whether to sell Karazhanbasmunai to of them. We don't have any information that Karazhanbasmunai will be sold to Cnooc."

Gavrilova wouldn't identify any of the foreign bidders.

Cnooc may buy Nations Energy, which put itself up for sale last year, Reuters said yesterday, citing unidentified people familiar with the company.

Xiao Zongwei, Cnooc's Beijing-based spokesman, wouldn't comment on the reports that Cnooc may bid for Nations Energy.

Nations Energy, with a corporate head office in Calgary, Alberta, produces more than 50,000 barrels a day of oil, mostly from Kazakhstan's Karazhanbas field, according to the company's Web site. Its fields in Azerbaijan offer ``significant production growth,'' according to the Web site.