SEPT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea could start production in 2012, Eni chairman, Guisepp Recchi, was quoted by Dow Jones news agency as saying. Eni is part of the consortium developing Kashagan. Earlier reports had said production at Kashagan, key to Kazakh plans to become a global energy power, would be delayed until 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 55, published on Sept. 6 2011)
AUG. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak signed major deals during a trip to Central Asia, turning South Korea into one of the region’s biggest business partners. In Kazakhstan, South Korean companies will build two coal-fired power stations and a petrochemical plant worth $8b. In Uzbekistan, a South Korean company will build a $2.8b chemicals plant.
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(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The proposed pipeline running from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India (TAPI) inched forward after Turkmen and Afghan officials agreed a number of technical issues, Turkmen state news agency reported. The completion of TAPI will further cement Turkmenistan’s position as the region’s main gas supplier.
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(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)
AUG. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A closed court in Aktau, west Kazakhstan, jailed for six years a lawyer who advised striking oil workers. Natalia Sokolova was convicted of “inciting civil disorder” and also banned from practising as a lawyer for three years after her release. Human rights groups said the sentence was incompatible with Kazakhstan’s commitment to free speech.
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(News report from Issue No. 52, published on Aug. 10 2011)
AUG. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Attention may have focused on Western Europe and the US but Central Asia’s biggest financial centre, Kazakhstan, did not escape the turmoil that has gripped world financial markets over the last week.
A ratings downgrade for the United States and worries about eurozone debt have spooked investors. There has been a flight to safety — gold and the Swiss Franc have boomed — as investors have become more wary of risk. Not good news for emerging markets, then.
Tellingly, Kazakhstan has been one of the worst hit stock markets in the world. Between Aug. 1 – 9 Bloomberg data showed the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) lost about 22% of its value.
To throw in a few numbers, KASE — which includes the state oil and gas company Kazmunaigas, miner ENRC, copper producer Kazakhmys and the country’s biggest banks — is now valued at around 63% of its mid-February value. Many of the companies listed on KASE have their main listing on the London Stock Exchange where the drop was far less dramatic.
KASE recovered 7% of its value on Aug. 10 but it hasn’t been this low since the start of March 2009 when the world was tentatively starting to emerge from the global financial slowdown.
Of course volatile oil prices play their part in pushing KASE up and down but so does general investor sentiment and they worry about emerging market risk.
KASE may be a relatively minor stock market but it is still a decent weather mast. That said, emerging markets with their potential for high growth rates will always attract investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 52, published on Aug. 10 2011)
JULY 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A strike at an oil field in western Kazakhstan forced KMG EP, the London- listed arm of the Kazakh state energy company, to lower its initial 2011 production target by 6%. This is a further reduction from two weeks ago when KMG EP said the strike at its Ozenmunaigas oil field would lower production by 4%.
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(News report from Issue No. 50, published on July 27 2011)
JULY 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Keen to reduce its energy import bill, Tajikistan has begun to build its first oil refinery, media reported. Tajikistan imports 90% of its oil from Russia which imposed an export duty tax earlier this year. The new refinery, 30km outside Dushanbe, is set to open in the second half of 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 50, published on July 27 2011)
JULY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers’ rights, the energy business and rock music are mixing into a potent concoction in Kazakhstan.
British pop star Sting stepped into the row between striking oil workers and Kazakhstan’s business elite when he cancelled a concert in support of a six-week long strike. Sting’s concert had been planned for Astana on July 4 as part of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s birthday celebrations.
Cancelling it handed the oil workers a massive publicity coup and Nazarbayev a very public snub.
On his website Sting, former frontman of the 1970s/1980s rock band The Police, said: “Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing.”
Perhaps Sting also had in mind the criticism he took last year after playing for the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, a man western human rights groups accuse of abuses.
The Kazakh strikers are mainly from Ozenmunaigas, a subsidiary of the state energy company Kazmunaigas in Kazakhstan’s energy producing western hinterland. They say they are not being paid enough. The authorities and Kazmunaigas have declared the strike illegal and arrested some of the workers’ leaders but they have failed to pressure them back to work.
Strikes in Kazakhstan are rare. This one though has already forced KMG EP, the London-listed arm of Kazmunaigas, to reduce its 2011 production forecast by 4% and looks set to rumble on.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas monopoly Gazprom appointed Timur Kulibayev, the favoured son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as one of its directors. Mr Kulibayev was appointed head of Kazakhstan’s $80b sovereign wealth fund earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The London-listed subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state oil company, KMG EP, reduced its 2011 oil production target by 4% because of strikes in the west of the country. Hundreds of oil workers have been on strike for a month over pay.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)