Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan ratifies EU trade deal

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Senate ratified a trade deal with the European Union which Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov said had far reaching implications. Mr Idrissov said: “The most important part of the new treaty is the trade section, which offers additional guarantees of stability to our European partners and will help raise Kazakhstan’s investment appeal.”

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakhstan’s energy firm schedules Kashagan work

MARCH 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state- owned energy firm, said work at the Kashagan offshore oil field is on schedule and it expects the field to be ready for production by October 2016. Kazmunaigas’ CEO Sauat Mynbayev said he is still unsure about the volumes that Kashagan will produce in November-December 2016. The consortium developing Kashagan, which includes Kazmunaigas, Shell, Exxon, Total, Eni, Inpex and CNPC, has been replacing damaged pipes.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Stock market: Roxi Petroleum, KAZ Minerals, Centerra

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused oil company Roxi Petroleum hit the headlines with a daily increase in its share price of over 10%, although the company did not publish updates regarding its operations at the BNG contract area in Western Kazakhstan.

Still rallying on positive results and an uptake in commodity prices, KAZ Minerals also fared well. The Motley Fool financial website said that, together with Glencore and Fresnillo, KAZ Minerals “could be a great long- term play on a mining sector recovery.”

Centerra Gold, a Kyrgyzstan-based Canadian miner, performed poorly again, and the company blames it on the uncertainty regarding negotiations the ownership structure with the Kyrgyz government.

“The uncertainty about renegotiating the future ownership profile of the Kumtor mine with the Kyrgyz government weighed heavily on the stock,” Mining Weekly quoted CEO Scott Perry as saying.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakhstan reveals Q4 GDP growth

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s economy grew by 1.2% in Q4 2015, the same rate as in Q3, official data showed. Like the rest of the region, Kazakhstan’s economy has been under increasing pressure from a worsening economic outlook. Last year Q1 GDP growth measured 2.3% and Q2 1.7%. This year the government has predicted growth of just 0.5%.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakh President’s grandson quits as Astana deputy mayor

MARCH 16 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, quit his position as deputy mayor of Astana to pursue his business goals, a move that draws him away from the succession debate.

His decision came just days before a parliamentary election, in which his mother, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, was standing for re-election.

“I’m looking to work in business development in a financial niche,” media quoted 31-year-old Mr Aliyev as saying. “For many years, before working in the akimat, I was engaged in business.”

Mr Aliyev is the son of Dariga Nazarbayeva and the late Rakhat Aliyev, who was found dead in a Vienna prison in February 2015. He had been charged with the murder of two bankers at Kazakhstan’s Nurbank in 2006.

Prior to being appointed as deputy mayor of Astana in 2014, Mr Aliyev had worked in Kazakhstan’s banking, telecoms and transport sectors.

But it was his shock appointment in December 2014 to one of the Kazakh capital’s most important positions, that threw him into the public limelight and set off rumours that he was being groomed for the top job.

His grandfather, Pres. Nazarbayev, is 75 years old and has said that he is nearing retirement. What he hasn’t done is set out a clear succession schedule.

One of the theories put forward after Mr Aliyev’s appointment as deputy mayor of Astana was that his mother would take over the top job in four or five years time and, effectively, keep the seat warm for her son to take over when he was old enough. The Kazakh constitution states that the minimum age for a president is 40.

Other than citing a preference to resume a business career, Mr Aliyev didn’t say why he was quitting as deputy mayor of Astana.

What his resignation definitely has done, though, is set off renewed Kazakh presidential succession speculation.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakhstan could take back uranium assets

MARCH 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state- owned uranium miner, could take back assets from joint-ventures with some of its foreign partners because they are under performing, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. Kazatomprom’s main partners in the nuclear energy supply chain include France’s Areva, Canada’s Cameco and Japan’s Sumitomo.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakhstan restarts Russian power exports

MARCH 17 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity company Samruk Energo said it resumed deliveries of electricity to Russia after cross-border trade was suspended in November 2014 due to the sharp depreciation of the rouble against the tenge.

Over the past six months the tenge has lost around 50% of its value, bringing it into equilibrium with the rouble and making cross-border trade viable again. Kazakhstan had stubbornly stuck to a US dollar peg despite a fall in global oil prices and a recession in Russia. It ditched this peg in August.

These electricity trades are important as they are more evidence of a normalisation of trade ties between Kazakhstan and Russia after a series of rows last year which, at their root, were triggered by the currency imbalance. Power supply contracts between Samruk Energo and Inter RAO are denominated in roubles which hit their value for Samruk Energo when the rouble fell heavily against the tenge.

Samruk Energo said it wants to export 1.8b kWh to Russia in 2016, slightly less than it exported in 2014. In 2013 power exports to Russia had been around 2.5b kWh.

The two power stations at Ekibas- tuz, in north-eastern Kazakhstan, will provide the electricity and Samruk Energo said the second unit at Eki- bastuz was also put into operation.

“Free capacity at Ekibastuz GRES- 1 and GRES-2 was allocated to export deliveries,” Almassadam Satkaliyev, Samruk Energo chairman, said in a statement.

The first unit is owned by Samruk Energo and Ekibastuz Holding, controlled by Kazakhmys.

GRES-2, the second unit at Eki- bastuz, is jointly owned by Samruk Energo and Russia’s Inter RAO.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Qatar oil meetings miss Kazakhstan

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has not been invited to a meeting in Qatar set for April 17 where major world oil suppliers are due to discuss freezing output levels at their current rates, energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said. The apparent snub for the FSU’s second biggest oil producer underlines its role as an oil price taker rather than an oil price maker. Oil producing nations are trying to coordinate a response to drag oil prices off record lows.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Editorial: British Airways and Azerbaijan

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -The economic downturn continues to hit Central Asia and the South Caucasus with British Airways now cancelling its London-Baku service.

But whether BA needs to quit the route altogether is questionable. Airlines keep a diversified portfolio of route because it is near impossible to second guess which routes will be profitable in a few year’s time.

The decision took many by surprise because of the strong presence of British business in Azerbaijan, most notably BP.

As oil prices fell dramatically in the past 20 months, airline companies have rallied on cheap fuel, but have also struggled to maintain links to countries negatively affected by the crisis.

In 2012, British Airways cut its route to Yerevan, the following year it cancelled regular flights to Bishkek and Tbilisi. Last October, the company quit its London-Almaty route.

The crisis, aside from hitting government budgets and people’s wallets, has contributed to cutting off further the region from the West.

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Editorial from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakh Parliament passes phedophile castration law

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament passed a law which will authorise officials to chemically castrate men convicted of paedophilia, AFP reported. Chemical castration is used in some countries although some human rights groups have criticised it. Without explaining why, Kazakhstan said that cases of paedophilia have doubled in the past four or five years and that it needs to increase the deterrent.

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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)