News Roundup - August 28, 2007

Wall Street Journal: In Caspian, Big Oil Fights Ice, Lethal Fumes — and Kazakhs
Since an unlikely alliance of Western oil companies received rights to drill for oil here a decade ago, they’ve struggled to cope with a combination of rig-wrecking ice packs, bone-chilling winters and noxious, high-pressure gases. Yesterday, the consortium’s bid to exploit one of the world’s top oil deposits encountered its biggest challenge yet: Kazakhstan’s government, stung by delays and rising costs, suspended the group’s permit for the field, halting work there for the next three months…

New York Times: Kazakhs Suspend Permits for Oil Field
The government of Kazakhstan suspended environmental permits on Monday for a consortium of foreign energy companies developing a potentially huge oil field in the Caspian Sea, threatening to slow development of the largest oil find in the world since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay off Alaska three decades ago…
CNN Money: Kazakhstan Sets Sep 5 Deadline For Kashagan Proposal
Kazakhstan expects the consortium developing the Caspian oil field of Kashagan to come up with proposals by Sept. 5 to resolve a dispute, with “adequate compensation” for a delay, a Kazakh official told Dow Jones Newswires on Monday…
International Herald Tribune: Kazakh President Fires Son-in-law from Government Fund’s Board
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has dismissed a son-in-law from a top position in a government investment fund amid an ongoing scandal over the former husband of his eldest daughter now wanted on kidnapping charges. Timur Kulibayev, the husband of one of Nazarbayev’s three daughters, Dinara, lost his job as a deputy board chairman of Samruk, a holding that manages state assets in major companies of the oil-rich ex-Soviet state, according to a decree posted on the Kazakh government Web site Monday…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Criminal Scandal Widens Around Ex-Ambassador Aliev
Kazakh authorities are piling up the evidence in the case against Rakhat Aliev, a former ambassador to Austria and an influential businessman…
EurasiaNet Insight: Kazakhstan to Cooperate with Russia to Build Air Defense System
Today the country’s defence minister held an expanded session with officers of military units located in [northern] Pavlodar Region. He said that in line with a new military doctrine adopted this year, funding for the army would considerably increase…
Reuters: Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank H1 Net Profit Up 110 Pct
Kazakhstan’s No. 4 bank Halyk Bank said on Tuesday its consolidated net profit rose 110 percent to 21.3 billion tenge ($169 million) in the first half of the year…
HotNews.ro: Dinu Patriciu: “I Did Not Sell Rompetrol, But Only a Participation”

Businessman Dinu Patriciu explained at TV news station Antena 3 talk show, “Stirea zilei” on Monday that he opted to sell 75% of Rompetrol to Kazakhstan company KazMunayGaz as he considered the interests of both parties would fit very well. Moreover, he says that his move thus creates an alternative for energy projects from the Caspian region to Europe…

Wall Street Journal: Rompetrol Chief Says Sale Of Firm Will Help Europe
Rompetrol Group NV has sold 75% of its shares to Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company, KazMunaiGaz — a move the Romanian oil company’s chairman said would increase Europe’s alternatives to Russian supplies…
The Moscow Times: Battling High Bread Prices With a Cartel
The idea of creating a grain OPEC is similar to the idea of creating a gas OPEC, the plans to conquer the Arctic and the revival of Russia’s strength in strategic aviation. The only difference between all of these initiatives is the degree of their economic implausibility…
Shanghai Daily: Coastal Coup: Massive Gas Supply in Pipeline
China has set the route for its second west-east gas pipeline to supply energy from central Asia to its booming coastal regions. And at more than 7,000 kilometers long, it’s a massive undertaking, the project investor announced yesterday…

Kazakh Leopard Following in the Steps of the Asian Tigers

Nezavisimaya Gazeta - Yuri Solozobov

President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan is the only political party represented in the new Majilis (lower house of the parliament). It polled 88.05% votes. No other political party scaled the 7% barrier. The United Social Democratic Party or USDP polled 4.62%, Ak Jol 3.27%. Political scientists had expected the opposition (USDP and Ak Jol) to make the parliament but voters decided otherwise.

How come parties of the opposition failed to scale the 7% barrier? There exist at least two explanations. The opposition was not ready from the standpoint of organization. USDP leader Oraz Jandosov admits that “discussion of consolidation took too long.” Another explanation is even more alarming in its implications. Parties of the opposition like the USDP fell victim of their own radicalism. They called for dismantlement of the effective state machinery and development of some “new Kazakhstan” in its place. Voters in their turn want stability and therefore opted for a more moderate policy of the reforms pursued by Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan as it is does have accomplishments to take pride in. Why would its citizens jeopardize the recent economic and political successes? Particularly for the sake of personal ambitions of former state officials with inflated egos. By the way, very many expected the regime to permit Ak Jol, constructive opposition party headed by ex-chief of the presidential apparat Alihan Baimenov, to make the parliament. They were mistaken. The Kazakh leadership opted for no-nonsense but transparent rules for the snap parliamentary election. It set out to establish a bona fide political system, not an imaginary political landscape existing only on paper. And if the Kazakh opposition is weak nowadays, then it is surely its own problem. The election last Saturday dotted all Is and crossed all Ts in the political masquerade in Kazakhstan but left political parties every real opportunity to keep working.

Viewed against this background, USDP and Ak Jol leaders’ refusal to recognize the outcome is clearly an attempt to make the best of a bad bargain. When election is monitored by more than 1,000 foreign observers, it is not exactly a “profanation” no matter what the losers say. Independent watchdog groups appraised the election as fair and transparent. “The election was fair and legitimate. All in all, it was in line with the acting legislation and international commitments of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” to quote observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. OSCE experts ended up with a more or less similar opinion.

“This is the first time our country got this appraisal. It proves that Kazakhstan is making progress in the correct political direction,” Nazarbayev said. The president called Nur Otan’s triumph logical and refused to se absence of the opposition from the parliament as a “tragedy”. “History of the world knows single-party parliaments that are quite effective,” he said.

The president of Kazakhstan was undeniably referring to the political experience of Lee Kuan Yew, author of the Singaporean marvel who dispelled the myth of universality of the Western model of democracy and state rule. Prime minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, Yew was simultaneously leader of the ruling People’s Action Party. Single-party parliament of Singapore was elected in 1968. Following that, the People’s Action Party either won absolutely all seats on the parliament or an overwhelming majority of them in campaign after campaign. Singapore was not any worse off for it. On the contrary, the country made some truly amazing progress in political and economic modernization.

Looking for its own model of democracy and modernization and examples to follow, the Kazakh leadership more and more frequently turns to the so called Asian model of democracy successfully tried in the Asian-Pacific region in the second half of the 20th century. South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore are known throughout the world as democracies where all fundamental principles of democratic rule are observed. On the other hand, their democratic systems do greatly differ from Western democracies. Political experience of the Asian-Pacific region sets an example for official Astana. Ideologists of the Kazakh reforms are convinced that the political system of their native country should be a synthesis of democracy (democracy as a way and means, not the ultimate objective) and national traditions of Kazakhstan.

Preparing the political reforms, Astana studied foreign experience. Kazakh leaders believe that “there are three models of democracy in the world these days: European, classic, and the new Afro-Asian one. Kazakhstan should decide which of them is best for its conditions, culture, population, and traditions.” Results of the snap parliamentary election shows that the Asian model has been chosen. Kazakh leopard is following in the steps of the Asian tigers.

Pipelines as a Foreign Policy Factor: The Americans Turn Their Attention to Pipelines in Central Asia

Rossiiskiye Vesti - Yuri Yeremin

The United States is playing its own energy game in the Central Asia-Caucasus region - and it doesn’t Russia to join in. One of the main objectives is to build pipelines that bypass Russian territory. Russia is taking steps to counter this.

Foreign experts in the energy sector suspect that the United States arranged a series of official meetings with leaders of the Central Asian and Caucasus states as a prelude to development of alternative oil and gas shipment routes from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Europe bypassing Russia.

Visiting regional capitals, representatives of the US State Department openly admitted that Washington has long-term interests in the Caspian region and promoted diversification of routes intended to abolish Europe’s and America’s dependence on Russia in so crucial a sphere.

Daniel S. Sullivan, US Undersecretary for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, signed an agreement with the Azeri Foreign Ministry on August 16. Washington will provide $1.7 million for the technical and economic assessment of two trans-Caspian pipelines to bring Kazakh oil to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and take Kazakh and Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea. The agreement on the US grant is supposed to signalize to would-be investors that Washington is prepared to minimize risks in this project. Winner of the grant will be determined in a tender which will apparently be won US companies. Insiders in the Azeri oil industry imply that the US doesn’t want Russian involvement in these future pipelines.

Experts point out that President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan visited Kazakhstan on August 6 and 7 (not that long before the signing of the agreement) where he discussed with the Kazakh leadership all nuances of financial and oil cooperation, including interaction in construction of trans-Caspian pipelines.

Seeing the US go active in the Central Asian region, experts draw the conclusion that the US State Department makes an emphasis in relations with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan on its national interests in the energy and military spheres and that observation of human rights and freedoms has definitely faded into the background. When the 10th annual US-Azeri security conference in Washington on July 9 culminated in the traditional press conference, journalists asked spokesmen for the US State Department what they thought about the state of affairs with human rights in Azerbaijan. Their reply was quite simple: the US State Department acknowledges existence of problems in Azerbaijan in this sphere, but the need to solidify positions in this country and secure better opportunities for American companies was taking precedence.

All these grandiose plans charted by the United States and its allies generate justified fears that this exceptionally expensive colossal transport infrastructure may be rendered obsolete by shortage of hydrocarbons in the region and made a vast heap of scrap metal and an unbearable burden for Central Asian countries. Specialists maintain that neither Turkmenistan nor Azerbaijan have sufficient explored reserves to fill all these pipelines.

News Roundup - August 27, 2007

Reuters: Kazakhstan Halts Kashagan Oilfield, Pressures Eni
Kazakhstan halted work at the huge Kashagan oilfield on Monday and opened a probe into customs violations there, putting further pressure on the project’s Western operators led by Eni as it seeks more revenues…
CNN Money: Eni: Kashagan Consortium To Meet Monday With Kazakh Authorities
Eni SpA (E), Italy’s biggest oil and natural gas company by volume, said representatives of the consortium set up to develop the Kashagan oil field will meet Kazakhstan’s authorities Monday to discuss the key energy project…
RIA Novosti: Kazakhstan Suspends Eni’s Operation at Major Oil Field
The government of Kazakhstan has suspended for three months a license held by Italy’s Eni to develop the country’s largest oil field on the Caspian shelf, the Kazakh environment minister said Monday…
International Herald Tribune: Romanian Gas Company Rompetrol Sells 75 Percent of Shares to Kazakhstan State Company
The Rompetrol Group has sold 75 percent of its shares to Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company, KazMunaiGaz — a move the Romanian oil company’s chairman said Monday would increase Europe’s alternatives to Russian supplies…
OilOnline: Kazakhstan Signs Deal to Link China with Caspian Sea Oil Fields
Kazakhstan and China have agreed to extend a crude oil pipeline to link mainland China to the Caspian Sea, giving Beijing direct access to Kazakhstan’s most lucrative oil reserves…
The Moscow Times: Kashagan Faces Russia-Style Squeeze
Kazakhstan appears to be taking a page from Russia’s rulebook on energy nationalism, threatening to withdraw the license of an international consortium led by Italy’s Eni as it seeks a larger slice of profits from the giant Kashagan oil field…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Is Russian Language Dying Out In Former Soviet Republics?
At the official opening of the Year of the Russian Language in Paris earlier this year, a giant banner proclaimed: “Russian Language: The First Language of Communication in Space.” …
The Australian: Close-up: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev won what The Independent described as a Soviet-style victory after his Nur Otan party picked up almost 90 per cent of the vote and a clean sweep of seats in the Majilis, or lower house of parliament…
Ferghana.ru: Ajdar Kurtov: Expulsion of the opposition: abridged history
Nur Otan’s total victory in the snap election of the Majilis (lower house of the parliament of Kazakhstan) on August 18 completed expulsion of the opposition from the national legislature. Ajdar Kurtov, an analyst with Asia Analysis Foundation, believes that the status quo was quite predictable and, to a certain degree, logical…
Kazinform: New Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Appointed
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov has introduced today new Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan Sauat Mynbayev to the staff…
Forbes: Italcemeni to Build 160 Million EUR Kazakh Cement Plant
Italcementi Group plans to build a 160 mln eur cement plant in southern Kazakhstan with an annual capacity of 1.2 mln tonnes of cement per year, the Kazakh Industry and Trade Ministry’s press service said, Interfax reported…
Reuters: Indicators - August 27, 2007
Kazakhstan’s economic indicators based on data provided by the State Statistics Agency, government institutions, the central bank and exchanges…

News Roundup - August 25, 2007

The Economist: Life without parole
Nursultan Nazarbayev must be very gratified. After 18 years as Kazakhstan’s president, and 16 of post-Soviet independence, he has managed to bend its political system enough to bring it full circle…
The Economist: Not quite the pact that was
China, Russia and the countries sandwiched between them can stage a fine military show—but they are not about to merge into a new monolith…
CNN Money: Eni Moves Toward Friendly Settlement On Kashagan
Eni SpA (E) Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said Friday that negotiations with the Kazakh government will begin Monday, in a first step toward a friendly settlement of a public dispute over the giant offshore Kashagan oil field…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakhstan Issues Warrant For Former Security Official
Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General today announced an international arrest warrant for the former chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakhs Seek Austrian Rethink On Aliev Extradition
The Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office has protested to Austrian officials over the rejection of an extradition request for a former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakhstan Urged To Probe Extradition Of Uzbeks
A Russian human rights group is calling on Kazakh authorities to investigate the extradition of 56 Uzbek asylum seekers to Uzbekistan over the past two years…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakhs, Tajiks Scrutinize Ties Ahead Of Summit
RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports that an official delegation from Tajikistan met in Astana today with members of the Kazakh government to discuss ways to improve mutual economic and cultural ties…
Forbes: Nokian Tyres in Talks to Build Plant in Kazakhstan
Nokian Tyres confirmed it is in talks about setting up a new production plant in Kazakhstan, but that no agreement has yet been made, the company said in a statement…
RIA Novosti: Ukraine, Kazakhstan Backed ‘Grain OPEC’ Idea - Russian Minister
Russia’s agriculture minister said Friday that the idea to set up an international organization to coordinate grain markets has been backed by Ukraine and Kazakhstan…
RIA Novosti: Italy PM to Visit Kazakhstan Where Eni Faces Oil License Revocation
Italy’s prime minister will visit Kazakhstan soon in an attempt to settle all outstanding issues with the country’s government, which has threatened to revoke an oil field license from the Italian oil and gas giant Eni, an Italian newspaper reported Friday…
Financial Times: Kazkommertsbank and Other Kazakhstani Banks Pay the Price of Popularity in Global Sell-off
Kazkommertsbank’s (KKB) five-year CDS widened by 15bps-20bps today (21 August), despite the bank’s attempts to mollify debt investors yesterday during a 1H07 earnings call. The bank is one of several Kazakhstani financial institutions that have fallen victim to their own recent popularity as issuers…
Regnum: Expert: Russia and China Increase Their Presence in Kazakh Oil Sector
A statement made by Kazakh Environment Minister Nurlan Iskakov that there are substantial grounds to fully suspend works on the Kashagan field development are, first of all, a wish to replace the operator of the field…
Regnum: Kazakh Nur Otan Party Starts Procedure of Forming Majilis: The Media Asked to Leave the Audience
Nur Otan, the only party that won the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, has launched the procedure of forming the Majilis…
United Press International: Analysis: Is Azeri oil blessing or curse?
The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union opened up the newly independent republics to the global economy, which has most notably been interested in their hydrocarbons. The clear winners in the race to develop Caspian energy reserves are Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan…
Wall Street Journal: On the Silk Road Again
What happens when four friends drive a new car across an ancient trade route, dodging camels, braving sudden sandstorms and off-roading around jade mines. A 1,700-mile road trip through a changing China…
Oil and Glory: Eight-Ball on the Caspian
Sometimes it’s instructive in Caspian pipeline politics to recall the simple game of eight ball, in which players use any means to dispose of all their billiards for a chance at finally firing in the solid black ball…

Kazakhstan’s Pipeline Dependence: Current State and Future Outlook - Part One - Russia

This is the first part of an analysis of current state of Kazakhstan’s distribution system - the study will show the existing and potential distribution options for both oil and natural gas out of Kazakhstan to markets in Europe and Asia.

Background

When in May 2007 the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan met in the Turkmen city Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea and agreed on two major gas pipeline deals to export Kazakh and Turkmen gas through the Russian gas pipeline system while at the same time ostentatiously shunning the Krakow energy summit focusing on alternative routes of bringing Caspian oil and gas to European markets, observers proclaimed Russia the victor of the geopolitical struggle for influence in Central Asia. In the race to build pipelines to deliver oil and gas from the landlocked Central Asian countries between the U.S., China, Iran and Russia, Vladimir Putin seemed to achieve a significant victory. Three months later, Putin’s victory seems less certain as both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan announced new deals with China to transport their vast reserves of oil and gas to the East, and even the almost buried and forgotten Trans-Caspian-Pipeline received a boost when the U.S. State Department announced that it commissioned a feasibility study for the project.

Kazakhstan and Russia

Despite the fall of the Soviet Union and the (in the case of Kazakhstan very reluctant) independence of the former Soviet republics, Russia still considers its former territories firmly within its sphere of influence. While its influence was represented in a diminished form in the 1990’s, with the arrival of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president and the prices of oil and other commodities reaching all-time highs, Russia’s claim to influence in the “near abroad” has become more and more accented. It has been manifested in many ways from subsidizing oil and natural gas exports as a reward to friendly regimes to actively supporting separatist movements in countries considered on anti-Russian path.

While the influence-seeking behavior may be a result of Russia’s imperial ambitions and desire to regain its superpower status, it is strongly pronounced by the remnants of Soviet Russia-centric infrastructure. It is important to note that while the fall of the Soviet UnionRussia and never before existed as independent nation states. created independent republics, the majority of them actually had no infrastructure in place to exist independently of Kazakhstan is a clear example of Soviet social and geopolitical engineering that left the country as a supplier of natural resources for the Soviet Union. The result is that even now 15 years after the Soviet Union became history and Kazakhstan is hailed as the new source of accessible oil, Kazakhstan is still almost completely dependent on Russia.

While its vast oil and natural gas reserves place Kazakhstan among the world’s top producing countries and perhaps the only non-OPEC country which will experience a significant growth in production in the coming decades, it faces major obstacles in getting its oil and natural gas to the markets. During the existence of Soviet Union, Kazakhstan was connected to the Soviet pipeline system which in Russia is currently operated by Gazprom (natural gas) and Transneft (oil). This link still exists today und up until this date amounts for the majority of Kazakh oil and gas exports. The obvious disadvantage of this situation is the reliance on one partner in getting oil (and the same goes for natural gas) to markets. Even if Russia’s (we have to consider the two pipeline companies as Russia’s political tools and pretty much an extension of the government) intentions towards Kazakhstan or the end-users of its oil were completely harmless, any kind of turmoil or unrest in Russia could have catastrophic consequences for Kazakhstan as oil exporter. The fact that Russia has its own interests and objectives and does not shy from using its pipeline operators to reach them makes this issue for Kazakhstan inherently more alarming. This reliance was decreased with the construction of the CPC pipeline in 2001 that connects Kazakhstan Tengiz field operated by Chevron to Russian Black Sea port Novorossiysk. This pipeline was originally developed by international oil companies and the governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Oman. While the CPC pipeline is not part of the Transneft system, Russia has lately increasingly frustrated the partners with demands for higher tariffs and a greater share in ownership. Therefore, despite avoiding Russia’s state-controlled pipeline system, the transit through Russian territory to the Black Sea ports and from there to European markets still remains highly vulnerable. Currently, 84 percent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports pass through Russia both through the CPC pipeline and the Transneft system, and with increasing production in the Tengiz and Karachaganak field, the number will grow in the coming years.

Oil pipelines

CPC pipeline

The 1,580-kilometer CPC pipeline connects Kazakhstan’s Caspian oil deposits (currently mainly the Chevron-operated Tengiz field) with Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Oil loaded at Novorossiysk is then taken by tanker to world markets. The project was finished in October 2001 with an initial capacity of 500,000 barrels per day and a projected capacity of about 1.4 million barrels per day by 2015. Although the pipeline transverses Russian territory and was developed in conjunction with the Russian government, it was initially hailed as a viable alternative to the Russian pipeline system operated by Transneft. The reasons for developing the pipeline were twofold. First, a reduction of the political influence Russia exerted over oil exports going through its own pipeline system. Second, to ensure that Kazakhstan’s high-quality, sweet crude oil did not mix with heavier, sourer Russian crude oil which was the case when Kazakhstan exported its oil through Transneft’s Atyrau-Samara pipeline. In retrospect, Kazakhstan and the Tengiz-operators accomplished only the second objective. Recent events when Russian government sought increases in transit fees and hit the Chevron-led consortium with repeated back tax claims, showed that despite being a private pipeline outside the realm of Transneft, it is not immune from politically motivated pressure coming from Russian authorities.

Atyrau-Samara pipeline

Kazakhstan’s other major oil export pipeline, from Atyrau to Samara, is a northbound link to the Russian distribution system Transneft. The 691-kilometer line was recently upgraded through pumping and heating stations additions and has a capacity of approximately 600,000 barrel per day. Before the completion of the CPC pipeline at the end of 2001, Kazakhstan exported almost all of its oil through this system. In June 2002, Kazakhstan and Russia signed a 15-year oil transit agreement under which Kazakhstan will export 340,000 bbl/d of oil annually via the Russian pipeline system in addition to exports through the CPC pipeline. Russia’s trade ministry also pledged to increase the capacity of the line to around 500,000 barrels per day. As the Kazakh production in the Tengiz and Karachaganak oil fields grows, and as the Kashagan field is set to start producing oil (currently predicted for 2011), the pipeline is likely to gain both in absolute volume and significance. Russia’s government openly favors the Atyrau-Samara pipeline option over the privately owned CPC pipeline, and since Transneft currently controls 24 percent of the shares of the CPC, it is debatable how fast the planned expansion of the CPC pipeline will proceed.

Kenkyak-Orsk pipeline

The Kenkyak-Orsk pipeline transports oil from the Aktyubinsk fields in western Kazakhstan to the Orsk refinery in Russia at a current capacity of approximately 130,000 barrels per day.

News Roundup - August 22, 2007

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: OSCE Offers Glimpse Into How It Monitors Elections
It was no surprise that Kazakhstan’s ruling party received a majority of the vote in the August 18 elections to the Mazhilis, or lower house or parliament…
Eurasian Home Analytical Resources: Parliemantary Elections in Kazakhstan
There are several reasons for the “Nur Otan” party’s sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan. Firstly, “Nur Otan” is a presidential party. During its election campaign “Nur Otan” relied on incontestable authority of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The Kazakh people regard Nazarbayev as a stability guarantor, and “Nur Otan” party’s success showed the high presidential rating…
New York Times: Kazakhstan Threatens to Halt Work on Big Offshore Oil Project
The government of Kazakhstan threatened yesterday to suspend work performed by a consortium of foreign oil companies at the Kashagan offshore field, one of the world’s largest oil projects, because of an assertion of environmental damage in the Caspian Sea…
Kommersant: Kazakhstan Applies Sakhalin-2 Methods to Kashagan
Kazakh government vows to halt work at one of the biggest fields of the country developed under PSA – the Kashagan field. The bureaucrats blame violation of environmental laws on investors, including Italian Eni…
NewEurasia.net: Deja-Vu
We have seen it before at Tengiz, and now it’s Kashagan’s turn. The Kazakh government yesterday threatened to revoke the license of the Eni-led consortium developing Kazakhstan’s biggest offshore oilfield in the Caspian Sea…
Forbes: ING Bank to exercise greenshoe option for Kazakhstan Kagazy shares
function getSharePasskey() { return ‘ex=1345521600&en=6bc4c938210678f6&ei=5124′;}ING Bank NV said it has given notice to exercise the over-allotment option for 6.7 mln shares of Kazakhstan Kagazy PLC in the form of 6.7 mln GDRs at 5.00 usd per GDR…
Hemscott: Roxi Petroleum Buys Stake in 3 Oil and Gas Assets in Kazakhstan for 190 Million USD function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent(’http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/business/worldbusiness/22kazakh.html’); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent(’Kazakhstan Threatens to Halt Work on Big Offshore Oil Project’); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent(’The warning came amid official anger over lengthy delays and large cost overruns at the field, discovered in 2000.’); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent(’Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline,International Relations,Kazakhstan,Total SA,Gazprom,Eni SpA,Exxon Mobil Corp,Royal Dutch/Shell Group’); } function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent(’business’); } function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent(’Business / World Business’); } function getShareSubSection() { return encodeURIComponent(’worldbusiness’); } function getShareByline() { return encodeURIComponent(’By JAD MOUAWAD’); } function getSharePubdate() { return encodeURIComponent(’August 22, 2007′); }
Roxi Petroleum PLC said it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire controlling interests in three new oil and gas assets in Western Kazakhstan for 190 mln usd, mostly by the issue of shares at 1.30 usd a share…

News Roundup - August 21, 2007

Bloomberg: Kazakhstan May Halt Work on Eni’s Kashagan Oil Field
Kazakhstan may suspend work at Eni SpA’s Kashagan oil project because of ecological damage as the Caspian Sea state seeks more profit from its biggest oilfield…
BBC News: China’s Increasing Hold over Kazakh Oil
Kazakhstan is about to become one of the world’s top oil producers, and as the scramble for its resources intensifies, the country’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, says the game is fair, and that Russia, China and the West are all welcome to invest…
St. Petersburg Times: China, Kazakhstan to Link Pipe to Caspian
China and Kazakhstan agreed Saturday to expand an oil pipeline that will link China to the Caspian Sea, giving Beijing direct access to an energy-rich region controlled by Kazakhstan…
Energy Business Review: Toshiba to Participate in Kazakh Uranium Project
As part of the company’s plans to enhance its nuclear energy business, Japan’s Toshiba Corporation has announced that it will participate in the Kharassan uranium mines project, a new development project in southern Kazakhstan promoted by the republic’s state-owned nuclear enterprise Kazatomprom…
Wall Street Journal: Toshiba Agrees To Acquire Stake In Uranium Mine
Toshiba Corp. said it agreed to buy some of Marubeni Corp.’s stake in a Kazakhstan uranium mine. The deal makes Toshiba the latest in a growing group of Japanese companies that has inked deals to procure uranium from Kazakhstan…
Kommersant: Russian Transit Monopoly in Central Asia Broken
The Russian monopoly on the transit of energy resources in Central Asia took two major hits last week. On Thursday, the US State Department announced that it awarding a $1.7-million grant to prepare a feasibility study of the Transcaspian Pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan and of a oil pipeline across the bottom of the Caspian Sea to connect Kazakhstan to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline…
Stratfor: The Looming Central Asian Battleground
After 16 years of relative quiescence, Central Asia is about to become a major field of competition between the Russians and the Chinese…
World Politics Review: U.S.-Azerbaijan Cooperating on Possible Expansion of Trans-Caspian Pipeline
In its latest effort to wean itself from dependence on the Middle East for its energy needs and to counter rival Russia’s influence in resource-rich Central Asia, the United States has signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to examine the feasibility of expanding the so-called Trans-Caspian Pipeline project to transport oil and gas from the region…
Reuters: Indicators - Kazakhstan - August 21, 2007
Kazakhstan’s economic indicators based on data provided by the State Statistics Agency, government institutions, the central bank and exchanges…

News Roundup - Post-Election - Saturday, August 18, 2007

The Economist: No Change Tolerated in Kazakhstan
President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s party won 88% of the vote in Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election and claimed every available seat. The removal of all opposition from the lower house greatly undermines the ostensibly democratic constitutional changes that served as a pretext for bringing the election forward by two years…
International Herald Tribune: EU Urges Kazakhstan to Bring Election Laws up to International Standards
The European Union has urged Kazakhstan to introduce reforms to bring its electoral laws in line with international democratic standards after a vote that gave all available parliamentary seats to the party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: EU Urges Kazakh Reform After Election Draws Criticism
A U.S. State Department spokesman, Gonzalo Gallegos, said that while Kazakhstan had made progress toward democratic reform, the election fell short of international standards. He said the 7 percent barrier for parties to win seats was too high, and criticized other election rules that allow the government to appoint some representatives to the lower house…
The Moscow Times: Nazarbayev Says Sweep ‘No Tragedy’
A new parliament consisting of solely the party headed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will be “no tragedy” for the oil-producing Central Asian state, the long-serving leader said Monday…
EurasiaNet Civil Society: Kazakhstan Set to Have One-Party Parliament Following Disputed Election
Kazakhstan’s governing Nur Otan Party will hold a near-monopoly on seats in the next parliament after scoring a landslide victory in August 18 elections. The results came under immediate criticism from international observers, and confounded most political experts, who had predicted that the opposition stood to gain more seats than ever before…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: President Hails Election Landslide As Good For All Kazakhs
Opposition leaders say the preliminary results suggest the clock has been turned back to Soviet-era totalitarian rule. International observers have called the process flawed…
Washington Times: Kazakh Vote: A Step Forward
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitored the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan this Saturday, found them a step forward toward democracy. This is a welcome change from the usual OSCE criticism of voting in the post-Soviet countries…
NewEurasia.net: Sham Election Leaves Kazakhstani Opposition Out in the Cold
While everyone who follows Kazakhstani politics expected Nur-Otan, the President’s uber-party, to win the election on August 18th, few thought that the results would be this obviously un-democratic…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakh Vote Sparks Fear Of Regional Imitations
When the Kazakh ruling party won all 98 seats at stake in the August 18 elections, President Nursultan Nazarbaev suggested that democracy and pluralism would not suffer under a one-party system. But political observers and opposition voices in Central Asia counter that it might have a negative impact in the region, with other leaders adopting the “Kazakh method” to tighten their grip on power…
ISN ETH Zurich: Nazarbayev’s Coup
Kazakhstan’s 18 August elections for the lower house of parliament (Mazhilis) were held ostensibly to give more power to the parliament and expand party representation in the house. None of those objectives were achieved…

OSCE’s Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions on the 18 August 2007 Parliamentary Elections in Kazakhstan

Here is the link to OSCE’s report on preliminary findings and conclusions on the election.