Eric Watkins
Middle East Correspondent
NICOSIA, June 6 -- China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has become 100% owner of the CNPC-Aktobemunaygaz Kazakh-Chinese joint venture after purchasing Kazakhstan's 25.12% stake during trading on the Kazakh Stock Exchange (KASE).
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the sale on Thursday after a meeting of Kazakhstan's Council of Foreign Investors (CFI) held in the Kazakh resort of Borovoye.
Nazarbayev and China's President Hu Jintao signed agreements on Tuesday aimed at revitalizing work on an oil pipeline from western Kazakhstan to China as well boosting Chinese participation more generally in the Kazakh energy sector (OGJ Online, June 3, 2003).
The state-owned package was reported to have been sold in four lots for $150,161,500 on the KASE on May 28, but no explanation was given for the 9-day delay in reporting the purchase of the shares by CNPC.
After the sale of one tranche of 2,236,619 shares for $135.15 million, the remaining shares were reported to have been sold in three separate lots at an average price of 9.110 tenge/share, considerably lower than the 23.446 tenge/share initially sought by the State Property Committee of the Kazakh Finance Ministry.
Kazakhstan announced plans at the end of April to sell its share in the JV, amounting to 2,484,653 common named shares with a par value of 1.500 tenge, or 25.12% of the total number of issued shares, with a declared and paid-in charter capital of 14,835,637.5 tenge.
At the time, Kazakh Prime Minister Imangali told a news conference that CNPC was seeking to buy the state's 25% stake in Aktobemunaigaz, saying "everyone, including CNPC, will be welcome to bid. This will be an open and transparent tender." He nonetheless said it would be "natural" if CNPC, which owned 75% of the shares, wanted to buy the remaining 25%.
CNPC became owner of 60.2% of shares in Aktobemunaigaz after a bilateral Kazakh-Chinese agreement in 1997. When the Kazakh company was later reformed as the JV, CNPC-Aktobemunaigaz, CNPC acquired just shy of 75% of the company and the Kazakh state 25.12%.
CNPC-Aktobemunaigaz is developing the Kenkiyak and Zhanazhol fields in northwest Kazakhstan, with total reserves estimated at 123 million tons. The firm produced more than 4.3 million tons of oil in 2002 and plans to increase production to 5.2 million tons in 2003.
