news roundup
Kazakhstan News Roundup - July 2, 2008
energy:
Exxon attacks Kazakh oilfield delays
(Financial Times) - ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest listed integrated energy group, on Tuesday blamed the government of Kazakhstan for delaying the development of the world’s biggest new oilfield, significantly raising the level of acrimony surrounding the troubled project.
Oil lubricates high-level links
When Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oil field was found in 2000, it was the biggest in decades. Few thought then that the Caspian field could be the last such discovery.
Eni to remain Kashagan operator till commencement of commercial production
(Interfax) - Italian Eni SpA will remain the operator of the Kashagan project in the North Caspian Sea till the commencement of commercial production in 2013, Total CEO Christophe de Margerie told Bloomberg in an interview.
Kazakhstan joined World Petroleum Council
(Kommersant) - Kazakhstan has joined the World Petroleum Council (WPC), Interfax reported July 1 with reference to KazEnergy association of oil, gas and energy companies of Kazakhstan.
MangistauMunaiGas more than doubled its Q1 profit
(SRI) - MangistauMunaiGas generated a net profit of 52.655 billion tenge ($440 million) in the first three months of 2008.
Russia could buy Oman stake in CPC
(SRI) - Oman, a shareholder in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), plans to pull out of the project citing low profitability of the venture.
Victoria Oil & Gas provides update on projects in Russia and Kazakhstan (OilVoice)
Max Petroleum extends deadline of restructuring deal until Aug 31 (Thomson Financial - Interactive Investor)
mineral resources:
Mining groups battle to come out on top
(Financial Times) - Kazakhstan is one of the best-endowed countries in the world for natural resources. As well as abundant reserves of oil and gas, the country is a major producer of uranium, copper, chromium, lead, zinc, manganese, coal, iron ore and gold, and is said to host 95 per cent of the periodic table of elements.
ArcelorMittal launches new Kazakh steel facility
(Reuters) - The world’s largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal on Tuesday launched a new steel rolling facility at its Kazakh plant and said it would invest $7 billion in the country by 2013.
ArcelorMittal: Steel giant takes ambitious step into the future
(Financial Times) - Few other jobs in the global steel industry are as challenging as the one facing Frank Pannier, the newly appointed chief executive of the Kazakhstan operations of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel maker.
Ferrochrome Q3 price rise disappoints, sector hit (Reuters)
business and economy:
Banks adapt to life in the slow lane
(Financial Times) - Kazakh banks had been growing at dizzying speed until last summer when a sudden liquidity crunch left themstranded with over $40bn worth of foreign debts, $14.8bn of which matures this year.
Economy: Bullish PM rejects tag of stricken tiger
(Financial Times) - A year ago, Kazakhstan was caught in a seemingly unstoppable spiral of growth, driven by surging oil export revenues and feverish foreign borrowing by the country’s banks to feed a domestic spending boom.
Stock exchange: Market comes out of shadows
(Financial Times) - Hundreds of Kazakhs have whiled away the early months of summer assembling fantasy equity portfolios on a virtual stock exchange. Birzha, a stock market game offering prizes of up to $15,000, hopes to educate a class of day traders to buy and sell on Kase, the country’s real exchange.
Capital markets: Outlook starts to worsen
(Financial Times) - In April, Kazakhstan’s long-term credit outlook was lowered from stable to negative, as concerns about the country’s financial sector rose amid fears that the banks would struggle to service the mountain of debt taken on before the credit crisis.
Grain: Prized crop gives strategists food for thought
(Financial Times) - Kazakhstan is already recognized as an emerging global oil power. It could also play an important role in easing world grain shortages.
Business schools in drive for quality
(Financial Times) - The two best-known business schools in Kazakhstan are overcoming resource issues in a long-term drive to raise their standards to western levels, and help produce a new generation of managers for the country’s fast-changing economy.
Alliance Bank looking for a buyer
(SRI) - London-listed Alliance Bank, Kazakhstan’s fourth largest bank, has hired two investment banks as it seeks to find a buyer who would buy a controlling stake in the bank.
Kazakhstan reports 1.2 percent inflation in June (SRI)
Kazakhstan: flour milling enterprises asks President to step in to save situation with flour export (AgriMarket.info)
Kazakhstan: Food Contract Corporation is interested in increase of grain shipments to Turkey (AgriMarket.info)
Alcatel-Lucent: JSC “Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan” and Alcatel-Lucent deploy IP/MPLS network for Halyk Bank in Kazakhstan (M2 Presswire)
Kazakhstan Growth Forum - a platform for potential international investors to get acquainted with country (Kazinform)
National Bank of Kazakhstan: Exchange rates July 2, 2008 (Kazinform)
Indicators - July 1, 2008
(Reuters) - Kazakhstan’s economic indicators based on data provided by the State Statistics Agency, government institutions, the central bank and exchanges.
politics:
U.S. lawmakers question Kazakhstan’s fitness to chair OSCE
(EurasiaNet) - A U.S. congressional delegation visiting Kazakhstan called on the country to speed up democratic reforms ahead of assuming the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010.
Managing to be friends with everyone
(Financial Times) - Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s president, is hosting a party this week to mark his 68th birthday and the first decade of Astana, the new capital he has built in the central Asian steppe.
Chairing the OSCE will test democratic commitment
(Financial Times) - Kazakhstan’s president is considering ordering a snap parliamentary election next year, setting the stage for more pluralistic political debate.
Role in the world: Uneasy ties with US are based on energy
(Financial Times) - Two years ago, US vice-president Dick Cheney visited Kazakhstan on a trip which owed much to his own personal relationship with the country and its rulers but which also cast light on the broader interest of the US in the nation.
society:
Arid Aral’s future sees the sea again
(Financial Times) - Located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth biggest lake, supporting flourishing fisheries and local agriculture. But it shrank to a third of its size after the Soviet Union launched an ambitious scheme to cultivate the central Asian steppe in the 1960s.
regional news:
The Caspian Sea: a new economic profile
(RIA Novosti) - The Caspian Sea is becoming a hub of the world’s economy.
Are Caspian energy reserves real?
(UPI) - Rising interest in natural resources in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan may be disappointing once virtual reserves are proved, analysts say.
Related articles
Discussion
No comments for “Kazakhstan News Roundup - July 2, 2008”
Post a comment