A wrangle over a huge Kazakh oil project led by Italian energy giant Eni has ended with the local oil company getting the same slice as the other six players.
After nine hours of talks Sunday, US giant ExxonMobil agreed to favourable terms for KazMunaiGaz to raise its stake to 16.8%.
The terms were not disclosed but western business media suggested KazMunaiGaz had wrung a hefty discount out of the others - albeit not as high as the original demand which caused the Americans to balk.
Storm clouds have been hovering over the project since the Kazakh government halted work at the end of August and asked to renegotiate terms, citing cost overruns and start-up delays at the Kashagan field - the world's largest oil find in 30 years.
For some time Kazakhstan has been threatening to revoke the consortium's license in a row which for many observers echoed Russia's wrangle with Shell over an operation eventually taken over by Russian giant Gazprom.
The Financial Times recently said Kazakhstan might go as far as ejecting the consortium but this was unlikely because it needed its expertise.
The Agip KCO consortium consists of Eni subsidiary Agip, Total, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, Impex and Kazkhstan's oil company KazMunaiGaz.
When they suspended work on August 27, Kazakh authorities cited a fresh start-up delay - from 2008 to 2010 - and cost overruns that have pushed the consortium's budget up three-fold.
They also accused the consortium of environmental and customs irregularities.
As requested by the Kazakh authorities, the consortium issued a new budget at the end of the year.
Problems such as dealing with dangerous gases, drilling under the sea and bringing in expensive new machinery have dogged the Kashagan project, which was initially supposed to come on line in 2005.
The consortium plans to extract 7-9 billion barrels of oil from Kashagan's estimated 38-billion-barrel field.
In a bid to end the row, Italian Premier Romano Prodi held talks in the Kazakh capital Astana in October.
