ASTANA, April 16 (Reuters) - China has shown interest inbuying the stake of U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips in amultinational consortium developing Kazakhstan's giant Kashaganoilfield, Kazakh Oil & Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said onTuesday.
"Kazakhstan has not yet taken such a decision, but there issuch a possibility," Mynbayev told reporters. He declined to saywhat company or government body represented China in talks withKazakhstan over Kashagan.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest oil producer and thesecond-largest post-Soviet producer after Russia, has thepre-emptive right to buy out the 8.4-percent stake owned byConocoPhillips in Kashagan.