Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

“World’s biggest bribe scandal” involves Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

ALMATY, MARCH 29 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Unaoil, a consultancy based in Monaco, channelled millions of dollars of bribes to Emerging Market governments and their companies, including in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, on behalf of major Western firms, an investigation by Australia’s The Age and The Huffington Post said.

The report used data from a massive cache of leaked emails and corporate documents from 2001-2012 to unveil what it described as “the world’s biggest bribe scandal.”

The Ahsani family, Monaco millionaires Ata and his sons Cyrus and Saman, ran Unaoil as a sort of lobbying intermediary. They denied allegations of bribe paying.

“What we do is integrate Western technology with local capability,” Ata Ahsani told the investigation team.

Effectively, the report said of Unaoil: “Its operatives bribe officials in oil-producing nations to help these clients win government-funded projects. The corrupt officials might rig a tender committee. Or leak inside information. Or ensure a contract is awarded without a competitive tender.”

One of Unaoil’s biggest client was US engineering giant Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a former subsidiary of Halliburton, which operates in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

In both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, KBR allegedly used Unaoil’s services to reach preferential deals and licences, mostly through personal connections and bribes to public officials.

KBR has not commented.

In Kazakhstan, leaked emails showed that Unaoil allegedly liaised with both Eni (codenamed “the spaghetti house”) and Kazmunaigas officials (codenamed “shashlik”) to secure tenders for KBR at the Kashagan offshore oil project.

Italian oil major Eni has not commented.

In Azerbaijan, both KBR and Swiss ABB allegedly won offshore oil contracts through insider information leaked by an in-country lead who had been bribed by Unaoil.

Swiss ABB has not commented.

After the report was published, police in Monaco raided the head- quarters of Unaoil. The FBI, the British Serious Fraud Office and the Australian Federal Police all launched major bribery investigations linked to the case.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakh plane crash-lands

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Bek Air Fokker plane carrying 116 passengers crash-landed at Astana airport, raising safety and security concerns for Kazakh aviation. Pilot Dmitri Rodin was hailed a hero after he performed a near textbook crash-landing after his front landing gear failed to engage as he approached Astana airport. Everybody aboard emerged unscathed from the crash.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakh Pres. visits EU

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Brussels to hold high-level talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and president of the Euro- pean Council Donald Tusk. Mr Nazarbayev wants the EU to consider establishing a visa-free regime for Kazakhstani citizens.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakh President’s daughter updates smartphone ban

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Deputy PM Dariga Nazarbayeva said that the recently-imposed ban on the use of smartphones in government buildings in Kazakhstan does not apply to journalists. At a press conference, Ms Nazarbayeva said that the ban is only aimed at reducing leaks of classified documents.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakhstan-focused Roxi issues shares

MARCH 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum said it will issue 500,000 new shares on AIM to start trading from April 4. Roxi’s shares fell sharply by 8% on the day of the announcement, to 12p. Hit by low oil prices, Roxi’s shares had picked up in January, matching a rise in global prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakhstan-based Nostrum revenues down

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil and Gas posted a 42% fall in revenues in 2015, a consequence of sustained low oil prices and falling production. Last year, Nostrum’s profits were $449m compared to $782m in 2014. Production volumes also fell to 40,391 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a 9% fall on 2014. Nostrum cut its capital expenditure in 2015 for drilling operations by 54% to $58.7m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakh-Russian aviation row derails Top Gear

MARCH 30 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Top Gear, the BBC’s high- profile motoring programme, cancelled filming in Kazakhstan after a row between Russian and Kazakh aviation authorities briefly closed the air route between the two countries.

Presenters Rory Reid, Eddie Jordan and Sabine Schmitz, but not Chris Evans or Matt LeBlanc, and 40 crew had reportedly been in Russia filming. They had planned to fly to Kazakhstan from Moscow but instead they returned to London after their flight was cancelled at the last minute.

News reports said the row focused on a new route by Air Astana to Mongolia that crossed into Russian airspace.

The row has now been resolved.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Editorial: Kazakh-Russian avaition row

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh fans of the BBC’s motoring programme TopGear fans were not the only disappointed onlookers of the aviation spat between Russia and Kazakhstan that grounded Kazakhstan-bound Aeroflot flights and Russia-bound Air Astana flights for a few days.

For supporters of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, the spat was embarrassing. How do two, apparently close, allies who inhabit the same economic and military groups, come to squabble over flight paths?

The diplomatic exchange between the two aviation regulators seems to have originated from a request put forward by Air Astana to fly over Russian territory to reach Ulaanbaatar, its newly-established destination in Mongolia.

This row now appears to have been resolved but the damage to the image of the various Russian-led regional groups, chiefly the Eurasian Economic Union, will be harder to repair.

Still, at least the Top Gear team will now be able to travel to Kazakhstan, via Moscow, for filming.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Polyethylene imports drop in Kazakhstan

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Imports of polyethylene, used to produce plastics, into Kazakhstan fell by 48% to 12,500 tonnes in January-February 2016 compared to the same period last year, MRC, a consulting company, said in a report. According to the report, imports in February stood at a similar level to last year. The fall may also be another indication of the worsening economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakhstan- based Tethys losses rise

MARCH 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Guernsey-based Tethys Petroleum said its losses more than quadrupled in 2015 compared to the previous year, mostly due to the depreciation of some of its Kazakh assets. Tethys lost $74.6m in 2015. According to the company’s yearly report, the tenge depreciation also dented revenues. The tenge lost around half its value against the US dollar in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)