Kazakhstan News Roundup - July 10, 2008

news roundup

Kazakhstan News Roundup - July 10, 2008

By SRI ⋅ July 10, 2008 ⋅

energy:

Construction of Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline started
(SRI) - Construction of the 1,300-kilometer Kazakhstan-China natural gas pipeline started on Wednesday near Almaty in a ceremony attended by Sauat Mynbayev, Kazakh Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Kazakhstan to build sulfur processing plants
(SRI) - Kazatomprom, the Kazakh national nuclear company, plans to build several sulfur processing plants in the republic, said an official at the Kazakh Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Kazakhstan to join Baku-Supsa oil line
(UPI) - Kazakhstan wants to transport oil through the Baku-Supsa Pipeline running through Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Supsa terminal in the Black Sea.

Kazakhstan urges Chevron to store sulphur indoors
(Reuters) - Kazakhstan urged a Chevron-led oil venture to work out a way to lock up its vast open-air sulphur stocks in an indoor facility by 2010.

KazMunaiGas to buy stake in Kazakh oil firm
(Reuters) - Kazakh state oil firm KazMunaiGas said on Wednesday it would buy a controlling stake in local oil company MangistauMunaiGas (MMG).

Kashagan predicted to produce 3.3 mln. tonnes of sulphur a year (Kazinform)

mineral resources:

ArcelorMittal spends US$262 million to improve Kazakhstan mine safety (AP - IHT)

Kazakhmys holders approved ENRC stake buy (Dow Jones - Morningstar)

business and economy:

Recessionary trends still continue in the Kazakh banking sector
(Interfax) - Ekaterina Trofimova, a credit analyst of Standard & Poor’s international rating agency, says that the situation in Kazakhstan is not changing to the better and may even aggravate.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan reach water agreement, discuss new gas deal
(Turkish Weekly) - An important agreement covering the release of water on the Syrdarya River has been reached.

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC summed up half year results
(Kazinform) - “Income for the first six months of 2008 was KZT 208.6 bln which is 16% higher than the last year. Cargo turnover for the first half-year has increased 10.2%.”

Fitch affirms BTA Bank’s ratings; highlights downward pressure on individual rating (SRI)

Fitch affirmed Kazkommertsbank’s ratings at ‘BB+’ downward pressure on ‘C/D’ individual rating (SRI)

Housing prices in Kazakhstan down in June (SRI)

Developers plan $1.5 Billion resort casino for Kazakhstan (SRI)

Kazakhstan will supply wheat to Kyrgyzstan despite the export ban (AgriMarket.info)

National Bank of Kazakhstan: Exchange rates July 10, 2008 (Kazinform)

Indicators - July 9, 2008 (Reuters)

politics:

Nazarbayev hints that democratization will take back seat on OSCE agenda
(EurasiaNet) - President Nursultan Nazarbayev has given a preview of how Kazakhstan will approach its chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010, and the future does not look pretty for the organization’s democratization component.

Nobel Prize for alleged human rights offender?
(ABC News) - Controversial President of Kazakhstan is backed for Nobel by US lawmakers.

comment:

Kazakhstan could help to tackle global food crisis (Financial Times)