News Roundup

News Roundup - January 17, 2008

By SRI ⋅ January 17, 2008 ⋅

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: President’s Former Son-In-Law Sentenced To 20 Years In Jail

Rakhat Aliev was once one of the most powerful and influential people in oil-rich Kazakhstan. But after an Almaty court ruling late on January 15, he’s now a fugitive from the law…

United Press International: Prison term for Kazakh leader’s son-in-law

The former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, now in Austria, has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in a Kazakh prison. Rakhat Aliyev was convicted of a long list of charges, including kidnapping two managers of a bank he controlled…

Interfax: Miners in Kazakhstan go on strike

Miners from the Tentek coalmine belonging to Arcelor Mittal Temirtau in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan started a strike on Wednesday morning. The strikers demanded the improvement of working conditions and a salary raise…

Forbes: World Bank provides 117.7 mln usd loan to Kazakhstan for health sector reform

The World Bank said it has approved a 117.7 mln usd loan for the Kazakhstan Health Sector Technology Transfer and Institutional Reform Project, which will help introduce international standards and build long-term institutional capacity in the ministry of health and related healthcare institutions…

Itar-Tass: Kazakhstan agrees to Protons’ launches in 1st quarter of the year

Kazakhstan’s government has agreed to launches of Proton boosters from the Baikonur space center in the first quarter of the year, Deputy Emergency Situations Minister of Kazakhstan, Valery Petrov, told a session of the Kazakh parliament’s lower house on Wednesday…

CNN Money: Eni CEO sees Kashagan daily output at 370,000 barrels in 2012-2013 - analysts

Eni SpA (NYSE:E) chief executive Paolo Scaroni said in a conference call yesterday that production at Kashagan is expected to reach 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2012-2013, when the first phase of the oil field’s development will be concluded, analysts said…

Europetrole: Energy European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs welcomes the resolution of the Kashagan oil field dispute

Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, has welcomed today the fact that an agreement has been reached between the members of the Kashagan consortium and the authorities of Kazakhstan. The resolution of this dispute will allow the development of the Kashagan oil field to proceed at the quickest pace possible…

Motely Fool: The Kazakhs’ crush on Eni

Italian oil company Eni (NYSE: E) and its partners have finally reached an agreement with government officials in Kazakhstan that will permit a continuation of efforts to start the flow of oil production from that country’s huge Kashagan field…

Neweurasia.net: Painful life of Uzbek migrant workers

It is not a secret any more that a great part of male population of Uzbekistan, mainly from rural areas, annually leave their homes and families and travel mostly to Russia and Kazakhstan in search of money for living. All are driven by the same factor - financial…

Reuters: Kazakh’s CenterCredit denies acquisition rumours

CenterCredit CCBN.KZ, Kazakhstan’s No. 6 bank, on Wednesday denied market rumours that it was being taken over by a large foreign player, which had sparked a rally in its share price…

Reuters: Major energy pipelines in central/south Europe

ASPIAN PIPELINE CONSORTIUM (CPC) - connects Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil deposits with Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. Oil loaded at Novorossiisk is then taken by tanker to world markets…

Interfax: France’s Vicat acquires 60% stake in Kazakh cement plant project

France’s Vicat Group has acquired a 60% stake from Kazkommerts Invest in a project to build a plant called PK Mynaral Cement Invest at the Mynaral limestone field in southern Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl region…

Reuters: KazAgroFinance plans $200 mln eurobond in 2008

Kazakhstan’s state leasing company KazAgroFinance plans to issue around $200 million in eurobonds in 2008, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday…

Reuters: Kazakhstan 5-yr CDS hit record high

The cost of insuring Kazakhstan against default hit a record high on Wednesday amid a global sell-off of high-risk assets on worries about a U.S. recession…