The reporters on Monday were informed by an oil ministry official on the sidelines of the Petrotech conference that ONGC Videsh is close to buying a stake of up to 40 percent in the Satpayev block in Kazakhstan.

The deal has yet not been finalized. It was further revealed by reliable sources that during a visit to India by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the next few weeks, the deal might be signed.

Brussels - European Union energy ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss ways of dealing with the shortage of Russian gas arriving via Ukraine.

The supply is now expected to resume on Tuesday following a deal on gas monitors signed in Brussels by representatives of Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly, and Ukraine's Naftogaz, whose pipelines are used by Moscow to deliver gas to Europe.

But the long-standing dispute between the two sides has already forced many European countries to dig into their reserves.

It has also sparked a row between Slovakia and neighbouring Austria over Bratislava's plans to meet its own shortfall by re-opening a Soviet-era nuclear reactor shut down by the EU for safety reasons.

Vienna - The price for oil produced by the Organization of

Petroleum minister Murli Deora on Saturday announced that the government is likely to cut petrol rates up to Rs 5 per litre, and a reduction of Rs 3 a litre in diesel and Rs 25 per LPG cylinder prices in the coming days.

According to sources, Oil companies have minimized the losses on petrol and diesel, as crude oil rates have lowered to $40 per barrel from its peak of $147 a barrel in July previous year.

Prague - An EU official Sunday signed a deal that allows international monitors to observe Russian gas flow via Ukraine, opening way for a renewal of gas deliveries to Europe, Czech officials said.

Speaking to reporters after returning from his mission in Russia and Ukraine, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs inked the deal, which was signed earlier by Russian and Ukrainian vice-premiers.

Topolanek said that Russia reiterated its vow to open gas taps as soon as the deal is signed by all parties and observers are in their place as defined by the agreement.

Vienna  - The Austrian government protested Sunday Bratislava's decision to reopen the Bohunice nuclear power plant complex, which was prompted by the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute that has left Slovakia without energy reserves.

"Recommissioning the unsafe Bohunice reactor cannot be accepted," Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said of the decision to power up the reactor that had been closed at the end of last year.

"Contracts must hold within a community. Shutting off the plant was one of the fundamental conditions for (Slovakia's) entry (into the European Union) , and it cannot simply be cancelled now," Berlakovich said in a statement.