This is the unedited version of the story that appeared in the newspaper on the above mentioned date. The Library did not receive the edited one.

ALMATY (Reuter) - Kazakhstan is trying to draw oil multinationals into a project to build a pipeline from its giant Tengiz oil field to the Black Sea, Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin told Reuters in an interview.

Kazhegeldin said talks were going on with Agip and British Gas to help reshape the troubled Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

In its current state, the CPC is a joint venture with Oman, which has been represented by Bermuda resident, John Deuss.

The two firms could join Mobil Corp as potential Western partners in an alternative project to build the $1 billion pipeline from the Tengiz field, half-owned by Chevron Corp.

"We are not throwing out Oman...we also invite them to take part. It will naturally be a transnational, serious project with guaranteed deliveries of crude oil,'' Kazhegeldin said.

The Kazakh-Russian-Omani CPC project is dormant and both Kazakhstan and Oman have accused each other of failing to meet their financial obligations on time.

Chevron has been cool to the CPC from the outset.

Kazhegeldin, who visits London this month, said he planned to meet top officials from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to discuss the possibility of financial backing.

"I think the club of participants is growing,'' he said.

He dismissed a widely-held view among oil industry professionals that Russia was blocking Kazakhstan's access to Western markets to prevent competition with its own exports.

"There are no politics here -- just no money,'' he said. "Russia wants us to go through Russia, but has no money to build the pipeline. Kazakhstan also wants to go through Russia but doesn't have any money either. Oman promised to give money, but set terms which did not suit my close partner Chevron.'' He added: "Chevron is working on my land on a 50-50 basis, and I am obliged to support it. That's why the process is delayed.'' The Tengiz project, signed in 1993, envisages investing $20 billion over 40 years to develop reserves estimated at six to nine billion barrels.

Oil Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev said recently Kazakhstan had offered Mobil a stake of up to 20 percent in Tengiz, subject to a six-month valuation, in return for helping build the pipeline.

He also said Chevron had signalled its willingness to sell part of its stake in Tengiz to Russian oil giant Lukoil.

But Oman Oil's Ed Smith, who is a director of the CPC, said this week that an alternative project might delay oil exports by up to two years to 1999.

CPC already owns a key stretch of existing pipeline transferred by Russia's State Property Committee in return for a $292 million subordinated debt instrument.

Kazhegeldin said that if Russia completes liberalisation of its internal market for crude and refined oil the question of the Western export route could resolve itself over time.

"For Kazakhstan there won't be any problem after five or six years. We would sell our oil to Russia,'' he said. "There is no difference in selling oil in Poland or in Russia. It's better in Russia because it's close.''