China has shown an interest in buying the stake of US oil major ConocoPhillips in a multinational consortium developing Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan oilfield, Kazakh Oil & Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said on Tuesday.

"Kazakhstan has not yet taken such a decision, but there is such a possibility," Mynbayev told reporters, without saying which company or government body was in talks with Kazakhstan over Kashagan.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest oil producer, has the pre-emptive right to buy out the 8.4 percent stake owned by ConocoPhillips in Kashagan.

ConocoPhillips, which has been shedding overseas assets to cut debt, has said it intends to sell its Kashagan stake to India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp for about $5 billion.