RI oil firm enters Kazakhstan

RI oil firm enters Kazakhstan

TOKYO (Dow Jones): Three Japanese companies will drill for oil in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Kazakhstan with financial assistance from Japan National Oil Corp., company officials said in the Tuesday edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The companies -- Indonesia Petroleum Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp. and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. -- have obtained a joint 7.14 percent stake in a drilling concession held by Kazakh Oil. The project is expected to cost about 48 billion yen, including the price of the stake. Royal Dutch/Shell group, Mobil Corp. of the U.S., Total of France and Agip SpA of Italy are all developing oil fields in the same area.

The three Japanese concerns will conduct their operation through a joint subsidiary in which Indonesia Oil owns a 45 percent stake and Japan Petroleum and Mitsubishi Corp. each own 2.5 percent.

Japan National Oil owns the remaining 50 percent of the shares in the unit, which will test-drill six wells between 1998 and 2003 prior to commercial production.