Friday June 4, 4:52 am Eastern Time
Kazakhs vow to settle row with British Gas, Agip
ALMATY, June 4 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan will not resort to international tribunals to settle its six-month old dispute with investors British Gas and Agip , Deputy Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said on Friday.
''This is one of the instances where both sides are in the right in their own way,'' Tokayev said at a news conference. ''We are confident this issue can be resolved through talks and we are not going to take it to an international court.''
Raising the issue before an international arbiter would only serve to damage Kazakhstan's reputation as an investment destination, he said.
Talks are progressing well, he said, but did not give further details.
British Gas and Italy's Agip are part of a consortium which has committed billions of dollars to develop the Karachaganak gas and condensates field in western Kazakhstan.
Texaco (NYSE:TX - news) of the United States and Russia's LUKoil are also part of the consortium.
But British Gas and Agip are now locked in a dispute with the government over alleged tax arrears totalling five billion tenge, worth $38.4 million at today's exchange rate.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of 15 million, has attracted a flood of foreign investors seeking to tap its enormous oil and gas reserves.
Interest has slowed since last year's oil price collapse, and many executives say disagreements with local authorities and the government are further complicating their operations.
Tokayev, who heads a newly created state agency to resolve disputes between the government and foreign investors, said the problem had arisen because of his country's ambiguous tax laws.
The government, alarmed at slowing investment inflows over the past year, pledged recently to weed out corruption, simplify tax issues and speedily settle disputes with foreign investors. |
