Citic Group, China's biggest investment company, and Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India's largest oil producer, may bid for more than 400 million barrels of Kazakh deposits owned by Calgary-based Nations Energy, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. A transaction would hamper efforts by companies such as Russia's OAO Lukoil, which is seeking to acquire supplies in Kazakhstan. The central Asian country, whose 35 billion barrels of reserves are twice as large as those in the North Sea, forecasts oil production will triple in the next decade. That would allow the nation to pump more crude than OPEC member Venezuela. ``Both the countries have no other way but to go out and look for assets overseas to secure supplies,'' said V. Raghuraman, a senior adviser to the Confederation of Indian Industry, the nation's largest industry body. ``More often than not, both of us'' end up competing against each other. China and India consume 11 percent of the world's oil, up from 9 percent in 2000, according to BP Plc data. The share used by Europe, Japan and the U.S. has shrunk to 57 percent from 59 percent between 2000 and 2004. Cooperation Accord China in January signed an agreement with India to boost cooperation, a month after the two nations made their first joint bid, to avoid competition and increased costs for fields. At stake is economic growth that exceeds 9 percent in both countries, the best among the world's major economies, and improved living conditions for more than a third of the world's people. China National Petroleum Corp., the nation's biggest oil producer, and Oil & Natural Gas agreed in December to buy Petro- Canada's Syrian assets for about 484 million euros ($624 million). Kazakhstan has tripled oil output since 1995, after production dropped following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lukoil, Russia's largest oil producer, paid $2 billion in December for Kazakhstan producer Nelson Resources Ltd., the Moscow-based company's biggest acquisition. Lukoil has competed for assets with China National Petroleum Corp., which bought PetroKazakhstan Inc. for $4.2 billion in October. Takeover Surge Energy-related takeovers announced by the two countries more than doubled last year to $16.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China and India face stagnant domestic oil production as their biggest fields age. India imports three-quarters of its crude oil, while China relies on overseas supplies for about two- fifths of the fuel it uses. Surging demand for oil in the two countries has helped drive a more-than-threefold surge in the price of crude oil over the past 4 1/2 years. Crude oil in New York was at $71.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:42 p.m. in London, up 32 percent from a year earlier. Nations Energy put itself up for sale last year. The company produces more than 50,000 barrels of oil a day, mostly from Kazakhstan's Karazhanbas field, its Web site shows. Oil & Natural Gas spokesman D.K. Dash declined to comment. Huang Xiang, a Beijing-based spokesman at Citic Group, couldn't be immediately reached for comment in his office. Philip Hirschler, a Geneva-based general counsel for Nations Energy, also couldn't be immediately reached for comment. Citic Remains China National, the parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co., and Cnooc Ltd., the No. 1 offshore oil company, were interested in bidding, people familiar with their plans said earlier. Lukoil may also bid, they said. The only Chinese bidder left is Citic, the people familiar said. China's government typically coordinates bidding by its state-owned companies to prevent unnecessary competition that would drive up prices of assets. China and India have faced off over resources before, with China National Petroleum last year outbidding Oil & Natural Gas for energy resources in Kazakhstan and Ecuador. Cnooc agreed to buy a stake in a Nigerian oil field for $2.27 billion in January, a month after India's government blocked Oil & Natural Gas's plan to buy the share. The Indian oil company in April said it will pay $166 million for a 15 percent stake in a Brazilian oil field owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and spend a further $234 million to help develop the asset. Nations Energy had profit of $80.5 million on sales of $339.6 million in the first nine months of 2004. Kazakh Allure The Karazhanbas field was discovered in the 1970s and was in decline until Nations Energy bought it in 1997 and increased investment, according to the company's Web site. Production grew to an average 35,154 barrels a day in 2003 from less than 5,000 barrels in 1999. The nation's fields may hold as much as three times more oil, according to a government report last year. Nations Energy's chairman, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, is a son of Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, a former Indonesian finance minister under presidents Sukarno and Suharto. Hashim, the former owner of PT Bank Niaga, is chairman of Indonesia's Tirtamas Group. Credit Suisse Group is advising Nations Energy. Rebecca O'Neill, a London-based spokeswoman at the bank, declined to comment. PIN/BLOOMBERG