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China Eyes Kashagan Stake

China has shown interest in buying the stake of U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips in a multinational consortium developing Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan oilfield, Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said.

"Kazakhstan has not yet taken such a decision, but there is such a possibility," Mynbayev told reporters. He declined to say what company or government body represented China in talks with Kazakhstan over Kashagan.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest oil producer and the second-largest post-Soviet producer after Russia, has the pre-emptive right to buy out the 8.4 percent stake owned by ConocoPhillips in Kashagan.

(Reuters)

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