Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Pipeline expansion delayed in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) –Just as first oil from the giant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian Sea draws tantalisingly close, a partner in one of its main export routes has warned of a delay to planned capacity expansion.

In an interview with Reuters, Mikhail Barkov, vice-president at Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, said work to expand the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline that runs from Atyrau in west Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiik had been delayed by 6-12 months.

He didn’t give any reason for the delay.

Transneft is the largest shareholder in CPC, followed by Kazmunaigas and US oil major Chevron. There are several other smaller shareholders. The pipeline started operations in 2001 and has been an important export route for Kazakh oil, mainly from the Chevron-led Tengizchevroil project.

The plan had been to roughly double the capacity of CPC to about 1.3m barrels of oil a day by 2015, partly to cope with extra supplies from the Kashagan oil field.

News of the CPC delay is likely to frustrate Kazakh oil exporters, particularly as they were set to soon celebrate the first oil from Kashagan after years of delays and cost overruns.

On Sept. 7, Sauat Mynbayev, head of Kazmunaigas, said that Kashagan would start production within a month.

An expanded CPC has been touted as one of the primary export routes for oil from Kashagan. The expansion delay is likely to push oil from Kashagan — operated by a consortium of ENI, ExxonMobil, Total, Kazmunaigas, Shell, Inpex and now China’s CNPC — onto other export routes wholly owned by Russia.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)

Kazakhstan’s president gives fitness advice

SEPT. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a visit to a school in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev had some advice for the country’s youth.

He credited his success to an hour of exercise each morning and to his high-brow, if somewhat eclectic, reading material.

“I get up at 6.30am and do physical exercise for exactly one hour,” he said according to the Tengrinews website. “When you get used to living with it, you can’t do without it.”

And on his reading habits, Kazakhstan’s only post-Soviet leader and the self-styled Father of the Nation said that he took his inspiration from a select group of high-brow authors; Russian writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekov, the Roman philosopher Seneca and the French 19th century novelist Honore de Balzac.

“You should read and not sit in social networks,” Mr Nazarbayev said on his visit to the school. “Social media is a fashion and will pass.”

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)

Kazakh football misses Champions League

AUG. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) –Kazakh football team Shakhter Karagandy narrowly missed out on becoming the first side from Kazakhstan to compete in the UEFA Champions League group stages after losing 3-0 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Celtic. Shakhter Karagandy had beaten Celtic 2-0 in the first leg of the tie a week earlier in Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Kashagan production to start soon in Kazakhstan

AUG. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The CEO of French energy company Total, Christophe de Margerie, said that Kashagan, the Caspian Sea oil field that Kazakhstan has pinned its economic hopes to, will begin production shortly, Bloomberg News reported. Total is one of the Kashagan shareholders. Production at Kashagan is several years overdue

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Violence erupts in Kazakhstan after concert is called off

AUG. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of youths in Almaty smashed cars and hurled bottles at police after a pop concert at a shopping mall was abruptly cancelled. Media reported that security forces called in specially armed riot police to control the crowds. Over 165 arrests were made and about a dozen people were injured.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan approves new energy code

AUG. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After several months of deliberation, the Kazakh government signed into law a new energy saving code that should turn the country into a beacon of green, power-saving efficiency in the former Soviet Union.

For foreign investors and business, the code — dubbed Energy Efficiency 2020 — is something of a quandary. It will create opportunities for some businesses but also additional cost for industry.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that by 2015, the country needed to reduce its power consumption by 10%. Energy Efficiency 2020 aims to cut this by 25%.

Mr Nazarbayev’s motivation for this decision may have been EXPO-2017, a global opportunity to showcase his gleaming capital, Astana. Part of the EXPO-2017 message is clean, efficient energy.

In any case, the ramifications will mainly be felt by large industry. Kazakh media reported that under the new code it will process energy audits of 2,000 industrial sites.

Those businesses that don’t pass the audit will have to buy and implement a series of energy saving technologies and techniques.

Another part of Kazakhstan’s society that will be heavily targeted to improve energy efficiency is insulation in Soviet-era housing. This is often leaky, spilling out much of the heat generated by the centrally-controlled system.

It is unclear who will foot the bill for this ambitious target, but the government said it has already allocated $7.1b for various energy saving projects.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank posts H1 profits growth

AUG. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s largest bank by lending, posted an 8.1% rise in the first half of 2013 compared to the same in 2012. Halyk Bank’s profit rose because of interest payments linked to an 18% rise in consumer loans, good news for the Kazakh banking sector which is recovering from the global financial crisis.

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Stars feature at Kazakh president’ family wedding

AUG. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — US singers Beyonce and Kanye West sang at the wedding of Aysultan Nazarbayev, grandson of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Leaders of ex-Soviet states often pay popstars to sing at private concerts. In June, Jennifer Lopez sang for Turkmen President Kurbangkuly Berdymukhamedov.

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Kazakh Central Bank switches to currency basket

AUG. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Keen to strengthen control over the tenge, the Kazakh Central Bank switched from managing the value of its national currency against the dollar to using an aggregated basket of currencies.

The US dollar will still make up 70% of the new basket, Kazakh Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko said, but the euro will also make up 20% and the Russian rouble 10%.

This system is more in line with a currency basket used by the Russian Central Bank to determine the value of the rouble.

In July, the Central Bank came under pressure to devalue the tenge after it dropped to 154 to the dollar. Since then it has rebounded to about 152 tenge to the dollar.

This currency basket will give the Kazakh Central Bank more room to intervene in the markets to defend the value of its currency. It scrapped a managed corridor value for the tenge in March 2011.

Two years earlier, in February 2009 during the global financial crisis, the Kazakh Central Bank devalued the tenge by 21%.

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan pegs tenge to currency basket

AUG. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank ditched its US dollar peg for the Kazakh tenge in favour of a currency basket. Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko said the currency basket breakdown would be: 70% US dollar, 20% euro and 10% Russian rouble.

(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)