Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kashagan’s woes emerge in Kazakhstan

OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been another turbulent week for the consortium of partners developing the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea.

This is the field that finally produced its first oil in September after a 13-year, $50b construction phase. It is Kazakhstan’s most high profile industrial project and also carries the nation’s hopes of securing a place as one of the world’s top oil exporters.

The pressure is on, then.

It hasn’t been a smooth route towards commercial oil production at Kashagan, though.

First a gas leak temporarily halted oil production in September. This was fixed but another gas leak halted production a few days later. After initially brushing off this gas leak and saying that it wouldn’t derail the production timetable, officials at the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), that’s the name of the company running the site, have changed their mind.

Kashagan will now close for a few weeks until the leak is repaired, media quoted an NCOC statement as saying, meaning that a commercial production target of 75,000 barrels of oil a day will not be hit this month.

A few days later media also reported that AgipKCO’s managing director, Umberto Carrara, had decided to retire after seven years in the job. AgipKCO was the company formed to build Kashagan. NCOC said Mr Carrara’s departure was unconnected to the delays at Kashagan.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Kazakhstan merges pension system

OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will complete the merger of its private pension schemes into a single national programme by the middle of next year, media quoted the Central Bank chief, Kairat Kelimbetov, as saying. The original plan had been to merge 11 pension funds in Kazakhstan into a single $21b programme by the end of 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Kazakhstan to merge air defence with Russia

OCT. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s government has approved a deal to merge its air defence systems with Kazakhstan, media reported. A deal to merge air defence capabilities was originally signed in January. Combining air defence systems will edge Kazakhstan further towards Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Kazakhstan halts Kashagan oil field

OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The consortium developing the giant Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea halted production to fix a gas leak. The shutdown will delay by a few weeks the commercial start of oil production that had been scheduled for this month.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Kazakh airport company posts profit

OCT. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Profit at the company which runs Almaty International Airport for the first nine months of the year hit $33m, up 65% from the same period last year, media reported. A group of investors linked to Kazakhstan’s business elite owns Almaty International Airport.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Russian fertiliser starts business in Kazakhstan

OCT. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s EuroChem, one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies, said it had begun phosphate mining in southern Kazakhstan. EuroChem is controlled by Russian businessman Andrei Melnichenko who is considered to be close to the Kremlin. EuroChem operations are expected to create hundreds of jobs.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Kazakhstan’s ENRC de-listed in London

OCT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The three founders of Kazakhstan-based miner ENRC have applied to de-list the company from the London Stock Exchange (LSE), media reported. The so-called ENRC Trio — Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Pathokh Chodiev — want to pull ENRC from the LSE after a series of corporate governance scandals.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Fuel price increases in Kazakhstan

OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan increased its state-imposed cap on fuel prices by 7 tenge to 117 tenge ($0.76) per litre of 92-octane petrol. Prices for the lower grade 80-octane petrol and diesel were left unchanged.

The closure of the refinery in Shymkent for scheduled repairs has triggered localised fuel shortages in the weeks prior to the price hike, scheduled for November.

In Southern Kazakhstan fuel was sold only through coupons and in limited quantities. Lines of cars queued at petrol stations that quickly ran out of 92-octane fuel and supplied only the 80-octane version.

Fuel price rises hurt consumers and tension is brewing in Kazakhstan.

According to the Kazakhstan Fuel Association (KFA), a fuel industry lobby group, routine repairs at the Shymkent refinery caused the shortage. It is only one of three refineries in Kazakhstan.

The government has instead blamed a general global increase in oil for the rise on the petrol price cap.

Ordinary drivers are even more frustrated. They blame owners of petrol stations for holding back supplies until the fuel price cap had been raised.

They’ve also had to stomach a higher price increase than originally flagged up.

(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

BBC airs Central Asia spoof

OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Utter the word Borat to a Kazakh diplomat and he or she may cringe.

It took years to purge the image of Kazakhstan — which wants to be seen as a modern, progressive country — from Borat, the boorish fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his 2006 film “Borat: Cultural learnings of America make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”.

Now, though, it appears that the BBC has created another comedy to, potentially at least, poke more fun at the Central Asian republics.

The BBC will broadcast the first episode of its new three-part comedy on Oct. 23 called “Ambassadors”. It’s essentially a sideways, tongue-in-cheek look at the British diplomatic service and the challenges of a foreign posting in a little-known and far-away country.

The twist, for Central Asia at least, is that the fictional little-known and far-away country is called Tazbekistan. No prizes for guessing the mish-mash of republics it is based upon.

And there’s more. The pre-broadcasting blurb goes further. The plot is based around an incoming British ambassador’s attempts to get to grips with Tazbekistan’s idiosyncrasies. This includes being oil-rich and having a woeful human rights record.

(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

Former Kazakh central banker plans move to the private sector

OCT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Grigory Marchenko, the former chairman of the Kazakh Central Bank, told Russian media that he is considering moving into the private financial sector. Mr Marchenko also denied speculation that he was sacked from the Central Bank earlier this month. Instead, he insisted that he had quit for family reasons.

(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)