All Want to Own Kashagan

Kazakhstan's government is going to take a stake in the Kashagan oil field, declaring that it has the right to buy a stake in a project that is its own. "The asset belongs to the state anyway," said Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan's minister of energy and mineral resources.
Now investors try to develop the world's largest oil find in more than three decades. The huge field off the Caspian Sea will cost an estimated $29 billion to develop and is expected to yield a total of some 13 billion barrels of oil. The project has been beset by delays.
Although oil was originally expected to flow in 2005, the target is now 2008. Among the companies interested in the project, were BG Group, ENI, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Exxon Mobil, Total, ConocoPhillips and Inpex of Japan. They all agreed to develop the field after its discovery in 2000, but BG said has since opted to sell its 16.67 percent stake.
When the companies said they have the right to offer their stake to another company in the group, except for Inpex, before offering it to an outsider, Kazakhstan government disagreed.
"In accordance with our legislation, pre- emptive rights belong to us," Shkolnik said. "If Kazakhstan has direct participation in such a project the project will move much faster," he added.