China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has bought a 25.12 per cent stake in a Sino-Kazakhstan oil joint venture for US$150.16 million, in the latest move by a mainland oil and gas firm in the lucrative Central Asian energy market.
The deal came a week after President Hu Jintao's state visit to Kazakhstan during which he signed agreements to boost CNPC's investments in the country's oil and gas industry, and to jointly study the feasibility of building an oil pipeline between the two countries.
State-owned CNPC - China's largest oil producer and the parent of H share PetroChina - would own 100 per cent of CNPC-Aktobemunaigaz on completion of the acquisition, up from the 74.88 per cent it already held, Interfax news agency reported.
Kazakhstan's state oil and gas firm KazMunaiGaz previously held the 25.12 per cent stake.
No oil reserve figure for the joint venture was disclosed.
CNPC is the largest Chinese investor in Kazakhstan. Early last month, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's Aurado Exploration expressing interest in buying at least 51 per cent of a Kazakhstan oilfield.
In September 1997, CNPC outbid United States oil majors Texaco and Amoco and Russia's Yuzhny Most for a 60.2 per cent stake in Aktobemunaigaz for US$4.3 billion, to be invested over 20 years. It subsequently raised the stake to 74.88 per cent. Under the 1997 agreement, CNPC was to pay US$585 million between 1998 and this year.