KazMunaigas Exploration Production, the London-listed arm of Kazakhstan's national oil company, hopes to get a stake in the troubled Kashagan development if the consortium running the project is restructured.

Askar Balzhanov, the chief executive of KMG EP, which is 61 per cent owned by KazMunaigas, the state-owned oil and gas company, told the Financial Times he was "knocking on the national oil company's door incessantly", trying to get involved in Kashagan.