"We have agreed on all the issues, and hope to sign [an agreement] at the end of the week," Sauat Mynbayev said.
The start of oil production at the Kashagan oil field, which is currently operated under a production sharing agreement, has already been postponed several times. A consortium of foreign companies led by Italy's Eni SpA initially pledged to start commercial production at the oil field, one of the largest deposits discovered in the past 30 years, in 2008. However, the launch date was later postponed until 2011.
In January, the Kazakh government ended a long-running dispute over ownership of the oil field by reaching a deal to raise its stake in the project from 8% to 16.8%, to match the level of the main foreign participants.
The consortium, which also includes Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total, earlier said delays in the start of oil production at the field were attributable to technical difficulties and the increase in costs, which had leaped from $57 billion to $136 billion.
Under the tentative agreement, the consortium of foreign companies would bear all extra costs, if the start of production was postponed beyond the deadline of October 1, 2013.
