U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips is ready to sell its stake in the giant Kashagan oil field, Kazakhstan's oil minister said, as the Central Asian nation tries to wring increasing revenue from foreign-owned oil and gas developments.Kazakhstan, home to 3 percent of the world's recoverable oil reserves, has sought in recent years to revise deals struck with foreign energy firms in lean post-Soviet years and boost its returns from foreign oil and gas companies.Development of the mammoth offshore field, the biggest oil discovery since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in the 1960s, has been beset by delays, rising costs and technical complications since it was declared commercially viable 10 years ago. Oil production is now expected to begin in March 2013.Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said that ConocoPhillips is ready to sell its 8.4 per cent stake in North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), the consortium developing Kashagan. "They have informed that they have the intention of selling," he told reporters.
ConocoPhillips is an international integrated energy company. Shares of COP fell by 0.05% or $-0.03/share to $57.38. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $50.62 and as high as $78.29. On average, 7424970 shares of COP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 774634.
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