another deal for the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

The governments of the Sultanate of Oman and Kazakhstan agreed this week to form a pipeline consortium to export the republic's huge oil reserves.

The project is expected to cost between $700 million and $1.6 billion to construct.

Bermuda-based OOC Ltd., which is run by local oil magnate Mr. John Deuss on behalf of Oman, played a key role in the technical and engineering considerations of the deal.

Although Mr. Deuss is president of the company, it is owned by the Omani Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals and is the vehicle for making investments in oil ventures outside that country.

Oman will provide technical, design, operating, and marketing assistance to the new pipeline consortium through OOC.

The consortium will build a crude oil pipeline system that will transport petroleum from the Tengiz oil field and other locations in western Kazakhstan to present and future deep-water terminal facilities.

Possible sites include the Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, although final selection will depend on political and economic factors.

The Omani and Kazakhstan governments will each have a 50 percent stake in the consortium, with the possibility of other members being allowed to join at a later date.

It is expected that the project will take three years to complete and that it will have a capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day within 12 years of start-up.

Credit support will be provided by Kazakhstan, which will contribute petroleum resources to the consortium.

Revenue from the sale of petroleum will be used as partial payment of the debt incurred to finance the system.

The pipeline could also serve other parties outside Kazakhstan and also provide petroleum to refining or other processing facilities along the route or at the terminal site.

Preliminary evaluations have identified eight possible route options, with final selection depending on detailed engineering studies and negotiations with right-of-way owners.

The states the pipeline may cross include Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey.

According to Oman's deputy prime minister, Oman had good inter-government relations with these states and was willing to use these relationships to obtain the consent of each for the construction of the system.

It is the second time within a month that major oil deals involving Mr. Deuss have been signed.

OOC helped secure the world's largest ever oil deal between Kazakhstan and US oil giant Chevron which was signed last month. It is expected to generate $230 billion over the next 40 years.

The new pipeline will be used to transport this oil from the Tengiz and Korolev oil fields.

The Tengiz is considered to be the world's richest undeveloped oil field that has been identified in recent years with oil reserves estimated to exceed those of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay by two and a half times.

Mr. Deuss, who rarely grants interviews, was in Oman for the signing of the pipeline deal this week and was not available for comment.