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PetroKazakhstan
shareholders approve CNPC takeover bid
Calgary, Canada: Canadian company PetroKazakhstan
Inc.'s shareholders have approved a proposed US$4.18bn
takeover bid from China National Petroleum Corp., China's
largest oil company. PetroKazakhstan produces oil in Kazakhstan.
China
National, or CNPC, agreed on Aug. 22 to pay US$55 a share
for the Calgary-based company that last year produced
about 12 percent of Kazakhstan's daily oil output. Shareholders
voted 99 percent in favor of the transaction.
In
a situation that is getting increasingly muddled by the
day CNPC yesterday said it has agreed to sell a 33 percent
stake in PetroKazakhstan to state-owned KazMunaiGaz. This
is seen as an attempt to ease government opposition to
the purchase.
Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Oct. 15 signed changes
to a law that will let the government block sales in oil
and gas companies. The bill was approved by the Kazakh
parliament on Oct. 12.
Another
potential spanner in the works may come from legal action
by OAO Lukoil, Russia's largest oil company. The Moscow-based
company on Oct. 5 said that it will ask an Alberta court
to postpone the takeover. Lukoil said it has filed with
the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce claiming that a shareholders
agreement gives it the right to buy out PetroKazakhstan's
half ownership of a joint venture that also produces oil
in the Central Asian country.
PetroKazakhstan
dismissed Lukoil's claim to the venture, called CJSC Turgai
Petroleum, and said PetroKazakhstan's sale to CNPC didn't
trigger any buying rights for the Russian company. PetroKazakhstan's
share of Turgai's output amounted to 30,994 barrels of
oil a day in the second quarter, he said.
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France
fails to shackle EU trade chief Mandelson
Luxembourg: Even as it failed to shackle the European
trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, in his attempts to
settle a global free trade deal, France has issued a warning
that it would be scrutinising his moves.
Mandelson,
in turn, promised to give EU countries more feedback on
the trade talks. France and other farming nations had
protested vehemently that Brussels was offering too many
agriculture concessions and also keeping them in the dark.
The
offer of closer consultations, sealed at an emergency
meeting of EU foreign ministers, fell short of Paris'
original demand that all new negotiating offers be approved
by member states before being put on the table by Brussels.
It
is agreed that progress on cutting developed nations'
farm subsidies is key to unlocking a global trade pact
at World Trade Organisation ministerial talks in Hong
Kong in December, which has the potential to either boost
or set back the world economy.
So
far France has been the biggest beneficiary of the EU
Common Agricultural Policy, which spends over 40 billion
euros (US$48bn) a year on farm subsidies. It has long
resisted attempts by Brussels, and by Britain, to make
drastic cuts to the system.
The
Hong Kong meeting of the WTO's 148 members is seen as
the last chance for a global trade deal under the organisation's
current negotiating round, which was launched four years
ago.
The
EU, the United States and other rich countries are hoping
for a deal that will allow their manufacturers of industrial
goods and service companies more access to the fast-growing
markets of poorer countries like Brazil and India. But
Brazil and other developing agricultural exporters are
holding out for an agreement to open up the massive European
and U.S. markets to their beef, dairy and other farm goods.
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