Oil and Natural Gas Corp is likely to pick up 30 to 40 per

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cent interest in Kazakhstan's prospective Satpayev oil field in the Caspian Sea, an official said today.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the state-run explorer, will sign agreement during the visit of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade this year in the national capital.

Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey and OVL Managing Director R S Butola are in Astana to conclude the agreement, the official said on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2009 conference here.

This comes after three years of tough negotiations, during which Kazakhstan went back and forth several times on its commitment to give ONGC a stake.

It was not immediately known if Kazakhstan has finally relented on giving a stake or if OVL would sign only an exploration contract wherein the Indian flagship would get a fixed fee for its efforts. "We need to wait to see the outcome of talks in Astana," the official said.

Kazakhstan had initially identified Satpayev and Akhambet blocks in the Caspian Sea for giving 50 per cent stake in one of them to OVL. Later, it reduced the stake on offer to 25 per cent and conditioned the Indian flagship’s entry to it teaming up with steel baron Lakshmi N Mittal.

OVL relented and in June 2007 made an attractive commercial proposal to KazMunaiGas (KMG), but in subsequent negotiations, the Kazakhstan’s state-run firm did not agree on the percentage of stake OVL would get.

It also did not agree on operatorship to OVL during exploratory and appraisal stage.