Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh police arrest leading journalist

FEB. 22 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Police arrested Seitkazy Matayev, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent journalists and a former press secretary of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as his son Aset for stealing government money and for tax evasion.

The arrests are a an escalation of the pressure that journalists are under in Kazakhstan. They appeared to show that no journalist, whatever their reputation and links, is beyond the reach of the authorities during a crackdown which analysts have linked to a sharp downturn in the economy and a parliamentary election next month.

Mr Matayev served as a spokesman for Nazarbayev in 1991-3, is head of the journalists’ union and runs the National Press Club in Almaty, used as a discussion platform for opposition, journalists, activists, politicians and businessmen.

He was also the founder and owner of the KazTAG news agency of which his son was CEO. The authorities said that they had stolen a combined 300m tenge ($861,000), from state organisations.

Journalists told The Conway Bulletin’s Almaty correspondent that Mr Matayev’s arrest signalled that the authorities wanted to increase the pressure on journalists further.

Zhanna Baitelova, a freelance journalist, said it was no surprise that the authorities were pressuring Kazakhstan’s opposition media.

“But when they detain the head of Journalists’ Union of Kazakhstan, an organisation that is per se neutral, it is shocking,” she said. “The situation with press freedom in Kazakhstan is critical, especially in the light of recent events.”

Police later released Asset Matayev. Seitkazy Matayev was placed under house arrest.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

OBI store to open in Kazakh city

FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — German DIY kit retailer OBI will build its first store in Almaty, Baurzhan Baibek, the city’s mayor told local media. Construction works will start in May and the new store will open in 2017. Kazakhstan’s DIY market is growing as more and more people follow the European trend for renovating their homes. Although an economic downturn has battered Kazakhstan it is still considered a decent market for well- known European brands open up in. Earlier this month, French retailer Auchan opened its first store.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Kazakhstan says it does not have right to buy Karachaganak stake

ALMATY, FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s government said it will not try to buy a 29.25% stake in the Karachaganak gas field that Shell inherited from BG Group after it completed a takeover earlier this month.

Previously, Kazakh officials had said the government might use its preemptive rights to buy out BG Group’s share in the field, one of the most prolific in independent Kazakhstan’s history.

Kazakhstan has now said it does not have any preemptive rights to buy the stake because the Shell-BG deal was not directly linked to the Karachaganak contract. Shell, which completed its $53b takeover of BG on Feb. 15, has not commented.

A direct change in the structure of the contract would have given the Kazakh government the right to move first and buy stakes on sale at market prices. The government used this mechanism when ConocoPhillips wanted out of the contract for Kashagan, a giant oil field in the Caspian Sea, in 2013. At the time, Kazakhstan matched a $5.4b offer by India’s ONGC Videsh and later sold the stake to China’s CNPC for the same price.

Now, the government has decided it has no right to do so.

Of course, Kazakhstan’s economic position has changed considerably since 2013. Then it was awash with spare cash. Now it is counting its coppers and flogging off chunks of previously sacrosanct state companies to pull through a deepening economic crisis.

And, for Kazakhstan, shying away from the Shell/BG stake in Karachaganak makes it look good and pro- Western business, especially important in this tight economic climate.

Karachaganak’s shareholders are Shell with a 29.25% stake, ENI with 29.25%, Chevron with 8%, Lukoil with 13.5% and Kazmunaigas with 10%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

KAZ Minerals grows production in Kazakhstan

FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals said it will grow production of copper cathode by around 70% in 2016 as new deposits of Bozshakol and Aktogay come online this year. The company plans to produce up to 155,000 tonnes of copper cathode in 2016. KAZ Minerals’ revenues fell by 21% last year compared to 2014. The company received a boost when Kazakhstan decided to abandon the tenge’s peg to the US dollar, leading to a sudden depreciation of the local currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Kazakhstan’s KMG makes refining deal

FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ subsidiary dedicated to exploration and production, said in a statement it obtained a price increase for oil it ships to refineries at Atyrau and Pavlodar. KMG RM, another Kazmunaigas subsidiary which manages the refineries, will now pay 74% more for shipments of oil to its refinery at Aktau and 16% more for shipments to its refinery at Pavlodar than it did in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

CPC boosts oil from Kazakhstan to Russia

FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil transport company Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it will increase the volume of oil it ships from Kazakhstan to Russia by 20% in 2016, to 51m tonnes. Nikolai Brunich, the company’s CEO, said it plans to receive around 2.5m tonnes of oil from Kashagan this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Business comment: Refinery deals

FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dealings at Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas can give a deep insight into the country’s oil sector.

Last week, KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ subsidiary dedicated to exploration and production, said in a statement it obtained a price increase for the oil it shipped in 2015 to the refineries of Atyrau and Pavlodar.

KMG RM, another Kazmunaigas subsidiary which manages the refineries, will now pay 37,000 tenge (around $105) per tonne of oil delivered to both refineries in 2015. This represents an increase of 74% in the case of the Atyrau refinery and 16% for Pavlodar, compared to an earlier agreement, which had not been approved by KMG EP’s independent directors.

KMG EP, which produces around 12m tonnes/year, sends around 2m tonnes to the Atyrau and Pavlodar refineries annually.

But the picture seems much less rosy for 2016. KMG EP said it will receive only 17,100 tenge/tonne ($48) from Atyrau and 31,923 tenge/tonne ($91) from Pavlodar this year, a steep fall from 2015’s revised prices. Although the company said these figures are not yet approved by its independent directors, this foreshadows another set of lengthy negotiations to bring the price back up.

The internal battle for profit margins within Kazmunaigas in this era of low oil prices looks like a battle for scraps. And in 2016, Kazakhstan forecasts a fall in production and lower prices for crude oil to be refined.

This may dent the budget of KMG EP, although it will be bolstered, overall, by a devaluation in the tenge. It earns cash in US dollars and pays most of its workers in tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Kazakh President praises EEU

FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting with the new chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), former Armenian PM, Tigran Sargsyan, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev reaffirmed his support for the often derided Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The EEC is the civil service that runs the main operations of the EEU. Critics of the EEU have said that it is a Kremlin project dreamt up to increase its political power over other members. As well as Kazakhstan and Russia, members include Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Kazakhstan’s ArcelorMittal worries

FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vijay Mahadevan, CEO of steel maker ArcelorMittal Temirtau which is one of the biggest employers in Kazakhstan, said his company will be looking at a drop in net income (EBITDA) of 13% in 2016, from $5.2b to $4.2b because of low global commodity prices. At the beginning of February, ArcelorMittal Temirtau scrapped plans to raise workers’ salaries in June because of worries about continued weak market conditions for its products.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Kazakh companies struggle with bills

FEB. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh companies are struggling to pay for the electricity they are using because of a general downturn in the economy, the deputy minister of energy Bakhytzhan Dzhaksaliyev told media. His views are another indication of the problems that Kazakh companies are facing as they try to counter the worsening economic conditions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)