Shell takes 'wait-and-see' approach to Kazakhstan investments amid disputesBritish oil and gas giant Shell has adopted a "wait-and-see" approach to new investments in Kazakhstan due to a lack of alignment between joint venture partners and the government on key issues, its chief executive said Friday.CEO Wael Sawan expressed disappointment over the discord during an investor teleconference, stating it directly impacts the company's willingness to commit more capital to the country."We are disappointed that we can’t see alignment between the joint venture partners and the government on some of these topics. It does impact our appetite to invest further in Kazakhstan, so we watch the situation with care," Sawan said during an investor teleconference. "We think that there’s still a lot of potential investment opportunities in Kazakhstan, but we will hold until we have better line of sight to where things end up.""I leave it to the individual joint venture sort of projects to be able to make sure that they represent the position of the joint venture partners in a unified way. But let me leave it at that, at that point for now," Sawan said.The statement comes amid a backdrop of ongoing international arbitration. Media reports indicate a Stockholm arbitration tribunal issued an interim ruling in a dispute between Kazakhstan and the shareholders of the Karachaganak field's operating company, ordering compensation of $2 billion to $4 billion to the state.Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov, while neither confirming nor denying the specific ruling, called the reported news "very good and encouraging." The dispute centers on allegations by the Kazakh government that the consortium developing the massive Karachaganak and Kashagan fields made unauthorized expenditures, with claims reportedly totaling up to $6 billion. Authorities maintain these are commercial disputes that do not affect the overall investment climate.The Karachaganak field is one of the world's largest, with estimated reserves of 1.2 billion tons of oil and 1.35 trillion cubic meters of gas. It is developed under a 40-year Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) signed in 1997 by the international KPO consortium. KPO's shareholders are Shell (29.25%), Eni (29.25%), Chevron (18%), LUKOIL (13.5%), and Kazakhstan's national company KazMunayGas (10%). (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX