Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

S&P upgrades ratings of Kazakhs lenders

OCT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency S&P increased the long term credit rating of Kazkommertsbank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest lenders, by one notch to B- from CCC+. S&P said the reason for the upgrade were the positive results in the first half of 2016 and the increased capitalisation of the bank. S&P also said the outlook remained negative, reflect- ing low confidence in Kazakhstan’s banking sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Condor starts production in western Kazakhstan

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian oil company Condor Petroleum said it started commercial production at its Taskuduk field, 50km west of Uralsk in north- western Kazakhstan. Condor said that, together with Shoba, another Kazakh oil field that started operations in September, its total output has reached 600 barrels/day. The company said its production cost remained low, at $28/barrel, allowing a $29/barrel profit in the first sales contract.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

ArcelorMittal resumes in central Kazakhstan

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based steel- maker, said it resumed operations at its plant in central Kazakhstan. The company had to cut production for three days, due to administrative issues which blocked train transport. In a separate note, the company said that Mojtaba Damirchilu, Iran’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, visited the plant and pledged to increase Iranian imports of ArcelorMittal Temirtau’s steel by 1/3 to 1.5m tonnes next year. Iran is ArcelorMittal’s biggest client. The international sanctions on Iran had hit its demand for steel, hurting the Kazakh steelmaker.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakhstan’s oil field produces first oil for 3 years

ALMATY, OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field, Kazakhstan’s Great White economic hope, started producing oil for the first time since 2013, lifting spirits after a tough couple of years for the Kazakh economy Energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev confirmed the re-start of the $50b Kashagan, which was shut down in 2013 after a couple of weeks of operations because of leaky pipes.

“I checked this morning and production is active from four wells, yielding approximately 90,000 barrels/day,” he told media.

Kashagan is one of the biggest international oil finds of the the last 30 years and Kazakhstan hopes that it will propel the country into the premier league of oil producers.

At peak production, Kashagan aims for an output of 370,000 barrels/day. Total Kazakh production is currently 1.5b barrels/day.

Eni, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, CNPC, Inpex and Kazmunaigas operate the Kashagan field.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Kazakh oil service company loses money

OCT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Oil service companies owned by Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas posted a 12% drop in revenues over the past two years, mostly due to sustained low oil prices, Kazmunaigas chairman Sauat Mynbayev said. Mr Mynbayev said that this trend should have triggered layoffs, but under government mandate the companies will not cut jobs. Loss- making Ozenmunaigas will maintain 9,500 workers on its payroll.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Kazakh President establishes peace prize

OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unable to win the Nobel Peace Prize that he has always reportedly considered himself worthy of for voluntarily surrendering the nuclear weapons that he inherited after the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has instead set up his own $1m prize for world peace and nuclear disarmament. He gave the inaugural award to King Abdullah of Jordan for taking in 1.5m Syrian refugees and for his work in making the Middle East a nuclear-free area.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Kazakhstan to extend visa-free travel

OCT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will expand its visa-free regime next year, in an effort to boost tourism, the ministry of investment and development said. The new regulations will expand visa-free travel beyond the current 20 developed economies, to include all OECD countries from January 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan’s oil and gas

OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – As shown in our charts this week, markets were upbeat, especially due to a steady increase in oil prices over the past two weeks, following a landmark agreement among the world’s top oil exporters.

OPEC, the exporters’ lobby group, decided to cut oil output by around 1.5% in an effort to put pressure on the US dollar and send oil prices higher.

This is OPEC’s first production cut in eight years, since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. And the decision is an important one.

It marks a formal agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose diplomatic spats had been at the core of OPEC’s inability to decide in the past year.

It also has an important effect on countries around the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan has quickly eroded its reserve base, pumping its oil money into the budget to contain its currency crisis. This could have not lasted much longer. Now, if oil prices continue to float around $50/barrel, a good 20% higher than two months ago, transfers from the oil fund can slow down and the leadership can breathe.

Perhaps out of excitement from the impending re-start of Kashagan in the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is also rallying on higher oil prices, cutting interest rates and transfers from its oil fund into the budget.

Two caveats, however, are needed for Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. First, don’t believe in any proposal from these two non- OPEC countries on freezing or cutting production. If their output falls it is because of economics.

Second, you need to wait until their mega projects, from Kashagan to Shah Deniz II, come online before making long-term assumptions on the energy might held by Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Emir’s falcon dies in Kazakhstan

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A prized hunting falcon belonging to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar died in a Kazakh customs warehouse. The precise reasons for the falcon’s death have not been released to the public. The Emir was a regular visitor to Kazakhstan, where he liked to hunt with falcons near Lake Balkhash. Kazakhstan is a popular destination for Middle Eastern rich with a penchant for falconry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Stock market: Centerra Gold, Thompson Creek

OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Centerra Gold’s stock price has been on a rollercoaster this summer, closely following the ups and downs of the price of gold.

This week, both fell. Centerra contracted by 9% to 6.49 Canadian dollars and gold registered an unusual 5% fall to $1,254.38/troy ounce on Thursday. After a tense spring, when the Kyrgyz government and Centerra were at loggerheads over permits and court cases, calm now appears to reign. Importantly, though, this year Centerra has actively tried to diversify its portfolio away from Kyrgyzstan, investing in Turkey and in the US.

As part of the financing for the acquisition of Colorado-based Thompson Creek, Centerra issued new shares which analysts said will dilute the share that Kyrgyzaltyn, the government-owned gold miner, owns in Centerra from 32% to approximately 28.8%.

The deal, inked in July, put relations between the company and the government under strain once again.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)