Norway plans to participate in developing Kazakh and Russian oil and gas fields in the Caspian, Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said at the opening ceremony for an honorary Norwegian consulate and representative office for the Norwegian company Statoil in Astana on Tuesday.

“The fact that an honorary Norwegian consulate and Statoil representative office is opening in Astana indicates that we are very interested in participating in developing fields in the Caspian,” Bondevik said.

He said that Statoil has plans and is interested in certain projects in the Caspian sector of the Caspian Sea.

“However, we not only talking about Statoil, Norway has a sector of industry that services the oil and gas sector and we consider that this industry would cooperate with great success in the development of oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan,” the prime minister said.

A source in the Statoil press service told Interfax that the company is interested in developing the Isatai and Abai fields and in participating in the development of the Tsentralnoye field with Russia.

Statoil is one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies in the world and produces about 1.1 million barrels of liquid hydrocarbons per day.

Lukoil, Gazprom and KazMunaiGaz are getting ready to jointly develop the Tsentralnoye field in the Caspian.