The Russian government and the Kazak state oil and gas company Kazmunaigas are both interested in buying Oman's 7% stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, or CPC, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.
At a cabinet meeting Friday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said the government is discussing obtaining Oman's stake in CPC, which operates a pipeline shipping Kazakh crude oil to the Black Sea.
Friday, Interfax also cited Kazmunaigas' Chief Executive Serik Burkitbayev as saying the company was awaiting the government approval to evaluate financial terms of a possible deal.
Oman's government said earlier it would sell its stake in the consortium.
Russia and Kazakhstan are the largest shareholders of the pipeline consortium, with 24% and 19% shakes respectively. Oman holds 7% in the consortium. A few major foreign oil companies, including U.S. Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Italy's Eni SpA (E), are also among the shareholders.
The CPC is a key energy export route for Kazakhstan, which intends to raise production from its largest producing field Tengiz to 540,000 barrels a day from the current 400,000 barrels by the end of this year.
Russia has blocked pipeline expansion plans of the consortium putting Tengiz plans to increase production at risk. The pipeline's annual capacity is 22 million metric tons. It is planned to reach 67 million tons after capacity expansion.