The Kazakh government used the services of its longtime outside counsel of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle to gain a stake in the country's second-largest oil field. The Kazakh government was in a legal battle for over two years with an international consortium of energy giants over the Karachaganak Petroleum Operating project. Under the new deal, the Kazakh government will now own 10 percent of the project. This will be done by reducing the stakes of the four energy companies currently owning the project. In recent years the Kazakh government has increasingly turned to high-priced law firms to reestablish its control over its natural resources which some feel where given away at throwaway prices after the collapse of the Soviet Union.