Kazak oil firm KazMunaiGaz buys Romania oil group Rompetrol

Kazakhstan''s state-owned energy group, KazMunaiGaz, has bought Romanian oil firm Rompetrol for $2.7 billion, for a majority 75-per cent stake.

The acquisition enables KazMunaiGaz to acquire Rompetrol''s 630 petrol stations in seven countries including Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Spain, Moldova and France. The deal requires European Union regulator''s approval.

The acquisition is being seen by the west as an energy pipeline to Europr that cuts its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Russia currently supplies a quarter of Europe''s oil, and over 40 per cent of its gas.

In the recent past Rusian president Vladmit Putin has resorted to flexing Russia''s energy muscles to ensure that recalcitrant CIS states do not annoy Moscow by developing closer ties with its European adversaries.

In the winter of 2006-07 Russia''s state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine for selling subsidized Russian oil to Europe at a profit, a move that also ended up reducing the flow of Russian energy supplies to Europe passing through the CIS state.

Russia said it wanted fair market prices for its energy resources, after years of subsidised exports to its former Soviet-era neighbours.