Kazakhstan excludes refinery from China oil deal

* CNPC, KazMunaiGas buying MMG without its refinery unit

* KazMunaiGas has sought control over refinery

ALMATY, April 20 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan has excluded an oil refinery from the deal in which Kazakh and Chinese state energy firms jointly bought a local oil producer, Kazakh state company KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] said on Monday.

KazMunaiGas and China's CNPC agreed last week to buy MangistauMunaiGas (MMG) as part of a deal in which CNPC also lent KazMunaiGas $5 billion. [ID:nLG948969]

"(But) shares in and assets related to Pavlodar oil refinery have been excluded from this deal," KazMunaiGas said in a statement.

KazMunaiGas had earlier said it wanted full control of the refinery, one of Kazakhstan's three. It already controls the two other refineries.

The government is keen to curb inflation, forecast at 11 percent this year, and sees control over fuel prices as one of its key tools.

MangistauMunaiGas, based in the Kazakh town of Aktau, has residual oil reserves of 812 million tonnes, including 194 tonnes of extractable reserves. KazMunaiGas said the joint takeover deal will be finalised by July.

Analysts say KazMunaiGas could later sell the MMG stake to its London-listed subsidiary KazMunaiGas Exploration and Production (KMGq.L). (Reporting by Masha Gordeyeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Simon Jessop)