AKIPRESS.COM - Nearly two years after Kazakhstan blocked India's $5 billion deal to buy stake in the Kashagan oilfield, ONGC Videsh Ltd has said the offer of an alternative mid-sized Abai oil block in Caspian Sea is not attractive enough.

Kazakhstan had in April last year offered OVL a stake in Abai, which was previously being operated by Norway's Statoil.

OVL, the overseas arm of state explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has after one year of studying the field data found it not attractive enough, sources told Indian Times.

OVL was offered 25 per cent interest in the Abai block, which according to Kazakhstan government estimates has 2.8 billion barrels of oil reserves. However, the Indian firm believes reserves may not that high.

Sources said the company has not yet formally rejected the offer but indicated it's reluctance to take a stake in the block ahead of the 12th meeting of the India-Kazakhstan Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic Scientific, Technological, Industrial and Cultural Cooperation here.

Kazakhstan had in July 2013 blocked OVL's USD 5 billion deal to buy an 8.4 per cent stake in the Kashagan oilfield, the world's largest oil find in five decades, from US energy giant ConocoPhillips.