News Roundup - February 8, 2008

Reuters: Kazakhstan wants bigger state role in energy

Kazakhstan, fresh from a bitter row with Western oil companies over a Caspian oilfield, wants to build up its weight further in its energy sector, the Central Asian state’s president said on Wednesday…

Reuters: Kazakhstan warns foreign companies over contracts

Kazakhstan fired a warning shot at foreign companies on Thursday, saying the government would repeat tactics used during a row over the huge Kashagan oilfield if they violated their contracts…

Xinhua: Kazakhstan suspends signing of new mineral contracts with foreign investors

Before a new tax law is enacted, all Kazakh companies, especially the state oil and gas company KazMunai Gas, will suspend the inking of new contracts with investors on developing the country’s underground resources…

Reuters: Kazakhstan wants stake in Kazakhmys power plant

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov ordered the state investment vehicle Samruk on Thursday to hold talks with Kazakhmys Plc to buy a stake in its big power project in Kazakhstan…

Reuters: Kazakhstan leader goes green in annual address

Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his people to go green on Wednesday, pointing to developed nations as a model to emulate energy-saving methods…

Itar-Tass: Kazakhstan practices own political state system model-president

Kazakhstan will be improving its model of political state system combining the generally recognised regularities of democratic development and traditions of the society, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in his annual address to the nation on Wednesday…

Xinhua: President: Kazakhstan willing to strengthen co-op with China, Russia

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Wednesday that his country will continue to strengthen political and economic cooperation with China, Russia and other Central Asian countries…

RIA Novosti: Kazakhstan reports 8.5% economic growth in 2007

Kazakhstan’s economy grew 8.5% year-on-year in 2007, the president of the Central Asian republic said on Wednesday…

Reuters: Kazakh leader urges less spending, more exploration

Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his government on Wednesday to cut spending to tame inflation, urging Central Asia’s biggest economy to learn its lesson from global financial instability…

Eurasia Insight: Mine safety back in sportlight after fatal accident

Safety at Kazakhstan’s mines is back in the spotlight after 2008 opened with a disaster that claimed 30 lives – the second large-scale fatal mine explosion within 18 months. Authorities have acted quickly to stem an outcry over safety standards, ordering the company operating the mines, steel giant ArcelorMittal, to improve safety procedures…

RIA Novosti: Kazakhstan set to boost uranium output 42% to 9,400 tons in 2008

Kazakhstan plans to boost uranium production 42% year-on-year in 2008 to 9,400 metric tons, the president of the Central Asian republic’s state-run nuclear company Kazatomprom said on Thursday…

RIA Novosti: Kazakhstan to increase oil output in 2008

Kazakhstan plans to increase oil output up to 70 million metric tons in 2008, a 4% increase year-on-year, the country’s energy minister, Sauat Mynbayev said on Thursday…

Kazinform: Kazakhstan exported 60.3 mln tons of oil in 2007

Last year Kazakhstan exported 60.3 mln tons of oil, the press release of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry reads…

Global Voices Online: Kazakhstan: Ethnic tensions and underestimated identity

Kazakhstan is a country that often boasts with inter-ethnic and religious tolerance - in tsar epoch it accepted many labor migrants from Ukraine and Russia. In J. Stalin’s times it was a destination for deported nations and political prisoners…

Global Voices Online: Kazakhstan: Elites getting younger and bleaker

Reshuffling of elites and higher officials in Kazakhstan is rarely a consequence of open political debates. Quiet resignations and appointments in the conditions of shady politics provide a fertile soil for commenters and observers to ponder on the reasons that are underneath this or that shuffle…

Forbes: Alliance Bank replaces personal loans with credit cards on customer default risk

Kazakhstan’s JSC Alliance Bank said it ceased issuing personal instalment loans to customers on Jan 15 and introduced a new lending programme consisting of revolving credit cards in order to address analyst concerns about increased customer default risk…

Forbes: Kazkommertsbank receives banking licenses for Tajik operations

Kazakhstan’s Kazkommertsbank said it has received licenses for the execution of banking operations in national and foreign currencies in Tajikistan…

Forbes: Chagala says agreed 53.5 mln usd credit facility

Chagala Group Ltd said it has signed an agreement for a 53.5 mln usd first tranche of credit facility with HSBC Bank Kazakhstan and Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG…

Reuters: KazMunaiGas buys Black Sea Batumi oil terminal

Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGas has become the sole owner of Georgia’s Black Sea oil terminal of Batumi by buying stakes from its partners, a seller said on Wednesday…

TREND: Working group for Caspian Sea status to meet in Baku

Russia and Azerbaijan’s governmental working group for determination of the Caspian Sea status will take place in Baku in February, the chair of the State Land & Cartography Committee Garib Mammadov said…

Kazinform: Government to moot Karachaganak GPP construction feasibility study

“The Government of Kazakhstan will debate the feasibility study of the construction of a gas processing plant (GPP) on the Karachaganak deposit early May this year, “KazMunaiGaz” CEO Uzakbai Karabalin told at the Energy Ministry’s meeting…

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Baku-Ashgabat thaw could have energy impact

Plans have existed for more than a decade to build trans-Caspian pipelines to bring oil and gas to markets in Europe — and lessen Western dependence on Russian supply routes. Cool relations between Baku and Ashgabat, among other problems, have prevented those blueprints from becoming reality…

The Moscow Times: Fossil feuds

As far as clich?s go, “Great Game” — shorthand for the ironies of how the 19th-century struggles between Russia and the West over Central Asia are being replayed today — is uniquely useful to Caspian Sea ignoramuses trying to sound insightful…