ALMATY, March 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state-run energy firm CNPC on Thursday said it complied with applicable laws in its 2003 purchase of a stake in a Kazakh oil company after Kazakh financial police said they were examining the deal.
Police said on Wednesday they were conducting a preliminary investigation into allegations of corruption against President Nursultan Nazarbayev's powerful son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, related to the 2003 deal between CNPC and Kazakh state company KazMunaiGas. [ID:nLDE6291UP]
On Thursday, CNPC said it had breached no laws in the matter.
"The company hereby strongly refutes any such allegations of wrongdoing against the company as groundless and slanderous," it said in a statement published in the Kazakh Vremya daily.
"Further, the company has always maintained high ethical standards of conducting business and strictly complied with applicable laws."
CNPC could not be reached immediately by Reuters for comment.
Mukhtar Ablyazov, an exiled Kazakh banker, last month accused Kulibayev of pocketing part of revenues from the sale of a government stake in the Kazakh company, AktobeMunaiGas, to CNPC.
Kulibayev, married to Nazarbayev's daughter Dinara, has filed libel suits against several local newspapers over the allegations. [ID:nLDE6111EF] The financial police have until April 2 to decide whether to launch a criminal probe.
CNPC is a major investor in Kazakhstan's oil and gas sector with stakes in six local oil companies as well as a pipeline that delivers 10 million tonnes of crude a year to China.
Analysts see Ablyazov's statements as an attack on Kulibayev rather than other businesses and say they highlight an intensifying power struggle within the divided Kazakh elite. [ID:nLDE6291UP]
Ablyazov, who lives in exile in Europe, is himself wanted in Kazakhstan on fraud charges which he denies. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Hans Peters)
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