Tag Archives: business

China could beat India for Kashagan

APRIL 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — China has shown interest in buying shares in the Kashagan oil project in the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas minister, Sauat Mynbayev, told reporters, comments that will cause concern in Delhi.

Potentially favouring China over India for a 8.4% stake in Kashagan (that the US oil company ConocoPhillips is selling) would cement Kazakhstan’s relations with its powerful neighbour and confirm Chinese dominance over the Kazakh energy sector.

China owns roughly a third of Kazakhstan’s energy reserves and is building a series of pipelines to ensure Kazakh oil and gas continues to flow east.

For India, losing out on a slice of the Kashagan project, the biggest oil field discovery in 40 years, would be a blow to its stated strategy of expanding its energy reserves abroad. India has been relatively slow to invest in the Caspian region’s energy projects and is trying to play catch-up.

ONGC, the state-owned Indian energy company, thought that it had secured a $5b deal to buy the stake from ConocoPhillips last year.

Kazakhstan, though, has the final say on who owns stakes in Kashagan and its intervention in a deal that India thought, and hoped, was done could be ONGC’s undoing.

Kazakhstan has until the end of May to decide who to award the stake to, or keep it for itself. Mr Mynbayev said simply that the best offer would win.

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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Kazakh Trio to buy back ENRC

APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The largest stake-holders in Kazakh miner ENRC, Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Patokh Chodiev, said they were considering teaming up with Kazakhstan’s government to buy back the company. ENRC is listed in London and is the subject of a corporate governance review.

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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Steel output falls in Kazakhstan

APRIL 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Production of steel, one of Kazakhstan’s most important exports, continued to fall, official statistics showed. In Q1 of 2013, Kazakhstan produced 22% less steel than in the same period in 2012. Analysts blamed the fall on a drop in global demand and sanctions imposed on Iran.

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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Kazakhstan lifts moratorium on subsoil licences

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government announced that it had lifted a moratorium on granting more licences to subsoil developers, underscoring the sector’s importance for Kazakhstan’s future development.

Minerals and energy have been the backbone of Kazakhstan’s economic boom since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and that is not likely to change.

Global demand for metals may have dropped but lifting the ban, which was introduced in 2008 to allow a smooth introduction of new tax codes, will still spur foreign investor interest in Kazakhstan. The country simply holds too much untapped mineral wealth to be ignored.

And the Kazakh minister for new technologies and industry, Asset Issekeshev, immediately invited foreign companies to apply for licences at a tender in May.

Most of the $170b foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1991 has been in the energy sector although senior government officials told Reuters the emphasis now would be on metals and non-hydrocarbon minerals.

To further encourage this, the government suggested that miners may be exempt from VAT.

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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Kcell gains subscribers in Kazakhstan

APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh mobile operator Kcell, controlled by Sweden’s TeliaSonera, said it had added 310,000 subscribers in Q1 2013, suggesting that Kazakhstan’s economy is still buoyant. At the end of March, Kcell said it had 13.8m subscribers and was the biggest mobile phone network in Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Astana Finance restructures its debt

APRIL 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh finance company Astana Finance is looking for a new date to restructure its $2b debt after missing a previous deadline set on March 28, Reuters quoted managing director Daniyar Nurskenov as saying. Astana Finance, set up 13 years ago, defaulted on its debts in 2009 along with three other Kazakh banks.

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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

China invests in Kazakhstan

APRIL 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev made one of his regular visits to Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. During the visit, Mr Nazarbayev agreed a number of bilateral deals including an extension, media reported, to a pipeline pumping oil from Kazakhstan to China.

(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Georgian fizzy water returns to Russia

APRIL 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian fizzy water brand Borjomi will be back on sale in restaurants, bars and shops across Russia after the Russian health authorities lifted their seven year ban. Analysts had interpreted the ban as a political move by Russia. In December, Russian investment company Alpha Group bought a controlling stake in Borjomi.

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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Chinese visit to Kazakhstan

APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev is likely to sign various bilateral deals with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when he visits Beijing from April 6 – 8, Kazakhstan’s media reported. The Tengrinews website reported that Kazakhstan has increased crude oil shipments to China by 20% per year since 2006.

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)

Kyrgyzstan to sell gold deposit

APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan started the sale of its second largest gold deposit, Jerooy, despite a $400m arbitration case levied by Kazakh investors
Visor Capital, Reuters reported. The Kyrgyz authorities tore up the previous sale of Jerooy after a revolution in 2010. Investors have become increasingly wary of Kyrgyzstan.

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)