Gaz de France sells stake in Kazakh JV

In a move intended to refocus its upstream operations on gas production, Gaz de France has sold its 17.5% stake in the Kazakh JV KazGeMunai to KazMunaiGas JSC for $350 million.

July 19, 2006

Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent

PARIS, July 19 -- In a move intended to refocus its upstream operations on gas production, Gaz de France has sold its 17.5% stake in the Kazakh joint venture company KazGeMunai LLP (KGM), which it held through its wholly owned German subsidiary EEG-Erdgas GMBH, to Kazakh state-owned KazMunaiGas JSC for $350 million.

The transaction is part of a larger sale in which GDF and coshareholders RWE Dea AG and International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, jointly sold 50% of KGM to KazMunaiGas for $1 billion total.

KGM shareholders are now KazMunaiGas and PetroKazakhstan Kumkol Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of PetroKazakhstan Inc.

KGM, which produced 2 million tonnes of crude oil in 2005, holds three production licenses and has successfully developed Akshabulak and Nuraly oilfields in central Kazakhstan's Kyzyl-Orda region.