First tanker with Tengiz crude loaded in Batumi
(SRI) - Batumi Oil Terminal in the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, run by KazTransOil, has loaded a tanker with Tengiz oil, Interfax reported on Thursday.

Roxi Petroleum provides update on Kazakhstan operations (OilVoice)

Ukrainian Energoatom and Kazakh Kazatomprom mull cooperation (SRI)

Kazakhstan, USA establish joint venture in oil-and-gas sector (Kazinform)

While South Africa falters Uranium One says ops in Kazakhstan will lead to dividends
(Mineweb) - CEO Jean Nortier says there are no issues in Kazakhstan that could hinder the payment of dividends although the company is dealing with limited sulphuric acid supply in the country which is currntly affecting production levels.

S&P: KazMunaiGas EP corporate governance score raised to CGS-6 (Cbonds.info)

Tethys Petroleum announces third quarter results (Market Wire - Fox Business)

Arawak announces third quarter results (CNW - Fox Business)

Imperial Energy held 75% of shares in Kazakhstan’s Sevkazgra limited partnership and a license to prospect and produce oil at the North Torgai block in north-central Kazakhstan.

Imperial Energy said in a statement the Kazakh exploration well demonstrated insufficient evidence of commercial hydrocarbons, following which a decision was made “to abandon the Kazakhstan interest and not to extend the exploration license, which expired on 4 November 2008.”

Imperial Energy, which reached a production rate of over 10,000 barrels of oil per day in Russia in December 2007, said 18 new wells would come on stream by late January 2009 to push production towards 35,000 barrels per day by the end of next year.

Since the start of its operations in Russia in 2004, Imperial Energy has invested over $900 million, with current-year investment planned at $350 million.

The company’s net debt stood at $237 million as of the end of 2007. In the first six months of 2008, the company received its first gross profit of $8.3 million.

Development of Kashagan field will proceed as planned
(EurasiaNet) - Development of the Kashagan oil field in north-western Kazakhstan will go ahead as planned, despite the ongoing global financial crisis, the US ambassador to Kazakhstan, Richard Hoagland, has announced.

Kazakhstan wants to buy 3 pct of CPC from Russia
(Reuters) - Kazakhstan wants to buy from Russia roughly half of the seven percent stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) that Moscow has acquired from Oman.

Kazakhstan to participate in Baku energy security summit (Kazinform)

Kazakhstan’s rapid economic growth has been highly leveraged, leaving the country far more exposed than other Central Asian states to international pressure. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Kazakhstani officials have taken quick action to contain the economic danger, but sudden uncertainty in energy prices have raised longer term concerns in Astana and Almaty.

Kazakhstani development plans suffered a significant setback on November 4, when
BG Group plc, one of the largest investors in the Karachaganak hydrocarbon field in north-western Kazakhstan, announced that it was postponing Phase III development of the site.

Phase III was expected to come online in 2012 and raise production to 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year at a cost of $8 billion. The company suggested the delay was a tactical move aimed at decreasing costs. BG shares have tumbled in November after the conglomerate reportedly earned 3 billion euros in profit during the first three quarters of 2008.

Analysts suggest the company, as it reshapes its strategies in light of the global economic downturn, senses an opportunity to register its dissatisfaction with an unpopular oil export duty introduced in May, 2008, and with the Kazakhstani government’s increasingly transparent ambitions to gain a stake in the entirely foreign-owned field.

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The pipeline group is led by U.S. major Chevron and includes Russian pipeline company Transneft, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, LUKOIL and BP.

The group exports Kazakh and Russian oil CPC-E from a terminal near the Russian port of Novorossiisk. Russia owns 31 percent in CPC while Kazakhstan has 19 percent.

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Mining output rose 8.5 percent, while production of utilities grew 23.3 percent. Manufacturing output, on the other hand, fell 2.7 percent.

On an annual basis, industrial output was up 2.1 percent in October, carried by a 7 percent rise in mining output and a 0.7 percent growth in production of utilities. At the same time, manufacturing output declined 3.9 percent.

In the first ten months of the year, industrial output grew 2.9 percent compared with the same period in the previous year.

Astana pursues nuclear energy deal with India
(EurasiaNet) - Uranium from Kazakhstan will soon be powering Indian nuclear plants, the Kazakh ambassador to India revealed in a newspaper interview.

Fitch downgrades energy and railway companies
(Fitch) - Fitch Ratings has today downgraded the Long-term foreign currency ratings of three Kazakh energy companies and a railway group.

Fitch takes rating actions on Kazakh corporates on sovereign downgrade (Interfax)

The agency has simultaneously revised the foreign currency rating Outlooks on three separate energy groups and affirmed their ratings. All the rating actions follow a sovereign downgrade of Kazakhstan’s Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BBB-’ (BBB minus) from ‘BBB’ today.

Kazakhstan’s Long-term local currency IDR has meanwhile been downgraded to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’. The sovereign downgrade reflects concern that a weakening bank sector and the government’s intention to draw-down an oil fund, to support the banking system and potentially the real economy, will jeopardise public finances. The Outlooks on Kazakhstan’s Long-term IDRs remain Negative. A full list of affected corporate ratings follows.