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| 3 February 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Politics and Macroeconomics |
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Government
Looks At West Kazakhstan Oil Sector Development |
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The
Kazakhstani government last week held a meeting to discuss the
development of the oil and gas sector in West Kazakhstan oblast, one of
Kazakhstan's largest oil and gas regions, Khabar state television
reported. West Kazakhstan oblast Akim Nurgali Ashimov presented the
region's industrial and innovation development program to government
members. In
his presentation, Ashimov described seven projects that will be carried
out in the oblast in the near future. Among the region's main projects
are the development of a shipyard to build sea and riverboats up to 200
tonnes, the creation of a gas turbine service center and the
construction of an ethyl alcohol production facility (to be built with
Japanese assistance). Government
development specialists raised concerns that the region's projects do
not meet the requirements specified in the national industrial and
innovation program. Akhmetov said the regional administration should
ensure that CIS and foreign market demand for services provided at such
facilities should be carefully studied. (Khabar) |
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Government
Says Stiffer Environmental Rules On The Way |
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In
2004 the Kazakhstani government plans to stiffen environmental
requirements for subsoil users, particularly oil and gas companies,
Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov announced at the collegiums of
Environmental Ministry in Astana this week. The
relevant proposals have already been introduced to parliament, and in
the near future the legislature is expected to weigh in on the issue of
payment of environmental fees and fines to regional budgets, Akhmetov
said. The
government began taking a tougher line against subsoil users last year.
On January 24 the Environmental Ministry announced that KZT 2 Billion in
fines for violations of environmental rules were collected in 2004,
including fines against the largest oil projects in the republic, Agip
KCO, TengizChevroil and PetroKazakhstan. Akhmetov supported tough stance taken by the ministry, saying that the oil industry, as Kazakhstan's largest, that must help lift Kazakhstan's environmental practices to world standards. To that end, the government is proposing several amendments to subsoil use laws that would toughen requirements for oil companies. (Khabar) |
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New
National Bank Chairman Officially Named |
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The
Kazakhstani Parliament on Monday unanimously approved the candidacy of
Anvar Saydenov for the post of Chairman of the National Bank. Saydenov,
who was the nominee of Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev, was
previously the deputy chairman of the bank. Since the start of the year
he had served as interim chairman after his predecessor, Grigoriy
Marchenko, was named a deputy prime minister. After
thanking the president and parliament for their votes of confidence,
Saydenov proceeded to lay down a seemingly firm policy line: the
National Bank will not interfere in the tenge exchange rate unless there
is the risk of an acute destabilization of the tenge-dollar rate.
However, Saydenov noted that the National Bank has been buying up
dollars over the past three weeks, and said that "we imagine that
we will adhere to a similar policy in the future." Saydenov
said that the National Bank will also keep an eye on other exchange rate
changes, such as the dollar-euro rate, that could affect Kazakhstan. "The National Bank will watch the trends and react appropriately," Saydenov pledged. (Kazakhstan Today & KazInform) |
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National
Bank Forecasts Stabilization Of Tenge-Dollar Exchange |
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"One
can expect the possible stabilization of the tenge-US dollar exchange
rate in Kazakhstan, or only slight changes," Kazakhstani National
Bank Chairman Ānvar Saydenov said at a press conference held on Tuesday
in Almaty. While
the dollar has fallen against the Euro by some 40% over the last two
years, the dollar has remained rather stable versus the tenge. "If
to make careful forecast I suppose that in the second half of the year
one would observe certain adjustments of dollar," Saydenov
predicted. "If we see that a dynamic of that the real, effective
exchange rate gets stronger, I suppose that the National Bank will take
measures to preserve the competitive ability of our exporters," a
hint that the bank would intervene to artificially lower the tenge
versus the dollar. Saydenov
refrained from offering forecasts on the world foreign currency market
in the near term, saying that there is too little agreement among
analysts for him to make a solid prognosis. (Khabar)
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Equities |
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The KASE-Shares index decreased by 6.57% to 141.99 by the end of period on January 28 2004. |
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Note:
KASE-Shares index is based on ask prices for equities in A Listing In
the period between January 15 2003 and January 21 2004, the volume of
equity trades at the KASE decreased to USD 5,781,983 from USD 3,535,674
in the previous period. The shares traded during the period were common
shares of Almaty Kus (ALKS), Aluminium Kazakhstana (ALKZ),
Bank CenterCredit (CCBN), KazChrome (KZCR), Kazakhmys
(KZMS), Temirbank (TEBN), UKTMK (UTMK), ValutTransit
Bank (VTBN) and Zerde (ZERD) and preferred shares of ValutTransit
Bank (VTBNp). (Irbis)
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Company News |
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Oil & Gas |
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Kazakhstani
state oil and gas company KazMunayGas hopes to wrap up negotiations with
French oil giant Total for the purchase of a stake in the Kurmangazy
offshore field by the French company, KMG President Uzakbay Karabalin
said. At the same time, Karabalin seemed to indicate that KMG is in no
rush to get a deal done, pegging the completion date of the transaction
only at "sometime in 2004." Karabalin
said talks between KMG and Total are on-going. The talks are three-way,
with the Kazakhstani government also playing an important role, he said.
"We plan to resolve the issue this year," Karabalin said at a
press conference in Aktau last week. Kazakhstan
and Russia agreed to develop Kurmangazy on a 50-50 basis in spring 2002.
KMG later said it planned to sell part of its stake to a western major,
selecting Total in a closed tender in the fall 2003. The Russian
partners in the Kurmangazy development are state oil company Rosneft and
state international oil company Zarubezhneft, which each hold 25%
interests in the project. According
to industry sources, KMG could sell up to half of its stake in the
Kurmangazy project - or a 25% stake in the project as a whole to
Total. Total would then be asked to finance half of all exploration
expenses (paying in effect for KMG as well). On the Russian side,
Rosneft will pay the exploration costs. Kazakhstani
specialists estimate that Kurmangazy holds about 1 billion tonnes of
recoverable oil reserves. The cost to develop the field is estimated at
about USD 10 Billion. (Interfax) *** Kazakhstani
state oil and gas company KazMunayGas is among the final three bidders
for a much sought after stake in Czech oil refining group Unipetrol. As
of mid-January, the 63% stake in the Czech refiner was valued at 8.5
Billion Czech crowns, or just under EURO 300 Million. Unipetrol
is the leading refiner in the Czech republic with sales in excess of USD
9 Billion. It controls two oil processing plants, several chemical
plants as well and also operates a chain of 320 gas stations. Some
17 firms and consortia from around the globe initially expressed
interest in purchasing the Unipetrol stake, which would also entail
assuming responsibility for around EURO 350-400 Million in corporate
debt. Among the initial bidders were Russia's Tatneft, KMG, Hungary's
MOL, Britain's Royal Dutch/Shell and Poland's PKN in a grouping with
US-based ConocoPhillips and Czech Republic-based Agrofert. Analysts
say the strongest bids were submitted by Shell, PKN and MOL. (Reuters
& AFX news agency) *** UzenMunayGas,
the production affiliate of state oil and gas company KazMunayGas
operating the Uzen oil field in western Kazakhstan, produced some
5.283.5 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate in 2003, 3.2% more than
in 2002. According
to KMG President Uzakbay Karabalin, the Uzen field is currently being
rehabilitated using World Bank funds so that in 2005 production at the
deposit can be ramped up to over 7 million tonnes per year. The Uzen
deposit is estimated to hold 190 million tonnes of reserves, Karabalin
added. Another
KMG affiliate, EmbaMunayGas, ramped up oil and gas condensate output to
2.631 million tonnes in 2003, 1.2% more than in the previous year. The
Emba field contains some 78 million tonnes of reserves. KMG
plans to merge Emba- and UzenMunayGas later this year in order to raise
capitalization at the united company and improve investment potential. As
a whole, KMG produced 7.915 million tonnes of oil in Kazakhstan in 2003,
while its transport unit KazTransOil shipped 34.2 million tonnes of oil
during that period. The national company produces about 16% of total oil
output in the republic. (Interfax) *** "If
we can reach an agreement with our Chinese partners, KazMunayGas plans
to start construction on an oil export pipeline to China in the summer
of 2004, state oil and gas company KazMunayGas President Uzakbay
Karabalin announced at a press conference in Aktau this week. Karabalin
called the Chinese market one of the most promising for Kazakhstan.
According to the KMG head, in the near future China will suffer from a
real fuel shortage, thus justifying the near-term construction of the
aforementioned pipeline. Karabalin said the pipeline, which would span
around 3,000 kilometers, could be built in two years. Karabalin
is now calling the Atyrau-Kenkiyak pipeline, built by China' s CNPC oil
company at a cost of USD 160 Million in 2003, the first leg of the
future western Kazakhstan-western China pipeline. The next section would
connect Kenkiyak to the Kumkol oil deposit in south-central Kazakhstan
via Aralsk. Finally the Kumkol field would be connected to Alashankou in
western China via Atasu. Kazakhstan
and China have been talking about building the pipeline for five years,
but the talks actually gained momentum late last year as the Chinese
side stepped up its efforts to woo the Kazakhstani. KMG says the
pipeline will have to carry about 20 million tonnes, roughly a third of
Kazakhstan's output in 2006, in order to be profitable. The line will
cost an estimated USD 2.5 Billion to build. (RusEnergy) |
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Banking and Finance |
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Halyk
Bank has backed away from a plan to begin charging a KZT 50 monthly
service fee to accountholders after the government intervened asking the
bank not to impose such charges. After
learning of Halyk's plans to impose the surcharge on accountholders, the
Ministry of Labor and Social Protection approached the bank asking them
not to impose the fee on accounts used by pensioners to collect their
state pensions. Over the half of Kazakhstani pensioners are currently
clients of Halyk Bank. The
government maintains that Halyk, though now private, holds a special
responsibility to its elderly clients as it was formerly the main
state-owned bank. If Halyk decides to re-introduce the service charges,
the government said it would likely bear the expense rather than pass it
off to pensioners. According
to Deputy Minister of Labor Gulshara Abdykalikova, "at present, a
working group has been assigned to calculate the cost of such a proposal
into the 2005 budget." At the same time, Abdykalikova issued a quiet warning to Halyk: she reminded pensioners that they can collect their pensions from any of Kazakhstan's 13 registered commercial banks, none of whom besides Halyk have aired plans to impose fees. (Khabar)
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Metals and Mining |
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Russian-Kyrgyz-Kazakhstani
joint venture CJSC Zarechnoe will eventually produce up to 500 tonnes of
uranium to produce nuclear fuel rods for Russian and foreign nuclear
power plants. The
JV was discussed during talks between Russian Atomic Power Minister
Alexander Rumantzev and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev in Bishkek
last week. The two men agreed on a business plan for the venture and
prepared a package of documents to secure a commercial loan for the
project. It
will take around two years and some USD 14.5 Million to get Zarechnoe
off the ground. Russia has already allocated USD 1.35 Million to the
project. Two
stock offerings have been registered. At present, the ownership of the
company break's down as follows: Kazakhstan's KazAtomProm holds 45%,
Russia's TVEL has 20%, Technosnabexport has 15% and Atomredmetsoloto has
10% while Kyrgyzstan's Kara-Baltin Mining Plant has 10%. (KazInform) *** Kazakhstan's
national nuclear company KazAtomProm last week launched a new processing
facility at the "Central" uranium mines in South Kazakhstan
oblast. The plant will go on-line this month and will produce its first
lot of processed uranium products (U308) in late 2004. The
U308 uranium produced at Central will likely be exported, KazAtomProm
sources said. The initial capacity of the plant will be 1,700 tonnes per
year, with eventual capacity to reach 2,000 tonnes per year. KazAtomProm
spent USD 4.5 Million of its own funds to build the processing facility. The
new facility will only process about half of the uranium extracted at
the Central mines, while the remainder will be sent, as presently, to
the Ulba Metallurgy Plant in East Kazakhstan oblast, which is also owned
by KazAtomProm. (Interfax) *** Kazakhstani
gold mining company Charaltyn will in the next few month launch
production at the Zhaima gold field in East Kazakhstan oblast. "In
Spring 2004 the company will launch production at Zhaima, one of 12
deposits in the Charsk gold belt. Zhaima will be developed according to
latest technologies using processes that considerably reduce expenses
and pollution," Charaltyn President Baltabek Mukashev boasted at a
press conference last week. According
to Mukashev, development of the Zhaima field will take place in phases.
If the work is productive in the first stages, investment and the scope
of exploration will be racked up over time. On the whole, Mukashev
believes the reserves of the Charsk belt could enable Charaltyn to
"considerably" increase production. In 2004, he specified,
Charaltyn expects to boost production to 2-2.5 tonnes of gold, versus
1.2 tonnes in 2003. (Interfax) *** The
Aktobe Ferroalloys Plant, a unit of major metals group KazChrome, has
received an ISO 9001:2000 quality management certificate, according to
the KazChrome press release. The
Aktobe Ferroalloys plant has been working on obtaining the international
quality control certificate since early 2002. During this time, the
plant retrained top and middle managers and revised organizational
charts. In December 2003, the plant underwent and passed a management
audit by German certification company TUF-South Germany. KazChrome
said that the acquisition of the certificate will not stop the plant
from future developing its management system at the facility. The
company is committed to improving the current system, it said in a press
release. (KazInform) *** Major
Kazakhstani coal producer Bogatyr Access Komir, a unit of US-based
Access Industries, will invest over KZT 3 Billion to technically upgrade
its Bogatyr and Severnyi mines in northern Kazakhstan. The
company will switch the Bogatyr mine to an electric railway system this
year as well as launch a new unit to improve the quality of coal
produced at the field. The Bogatyr mine produces some 14 million tonnes
of coal annually. The
Severniy mine produces roughly 3 million tonnes per year. The mine is
being transitioned to a motor railway and new excavators and dump trucks
are being purchased. (KazInform) *** Kazakhstani
metals company Yuzhpolimetal is teaming up with Tajikistan 's Adrasman
Mining and Processing Plant to found JV Adrasman, which will produce
lead ore products, the Yuzhpolimetal press service stated. Yuzhpolimetal
will invest its own funds, some USD 7 Million of them, to restart
production at the Adrasman plant in Tajikistan. In the near future the
South Kazakhstan plant hopes to begin receiving processed sulphide
concentrate from the Tajik plant. From these 14,000-16,000 tonnes of
lead and 40-50 tonnes of gold and silver alloys will be smelt annually,
Yuzhpolimetal officials said. In
2002 Yuzhpolimetal produced KZT 4 Billion worth of goods, but ramped up
output considerably to KZT 4.7 Billion for January-August 2003 alone.
The company expects production to total over KZT 7 Billion in 2004. (Interfax) *** Viktor
Til has been named the new general director of Kazakhstani metals giant
KazChrome by the board of directors, the company's press service told
Interfax. Previously Til was Vice President of KazChrome and Director of
its Donsk Mining Plant unit. Former
Donsk Mining Plant Deputy Director Saidakbar Mavlankhodzhaev has been
named the interim director of that facility. Former vice-president and
general director of KazChrome Bolat Svyatovis was relieved of his duties
in conjunction with a transfer to a new post. KazChrome unites the Aktobe and Aksu Ferroalloys Plants as well as the Donsk Mining Plant. The company is part of the Eurasian Industrial Association, an industrial group linked to the Eurasian Bank financial group. (Kazakhstan Today) |
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Power |
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US-based
energy giant AES Corp. plans to invest over USD 100 Million to repair
and upgrade its giant AES-Ekibastuz coal-fired power plant. According
to an AES press release, the USD 100 Million will be allocated over a
period of eight years. The goal of the investment project will be to
boost capacity at the plant from 1,200 MW to 4,000 MW. In order to
achieve this goal, the company has planned out a schedule by which one
energy block will be totally rehabilitated every two years. The
AES Ekibastuz GRES has eight energy blocks, each with a capacity of 500
MW. AES
executives from the United States and Europe will be flying in to
Ust-Kamenogrosk for a meeting to discuss the development plans with
executives of their Kazakhstani affiliates. "The
approval of the investment plans and plant development projects
illustrates AES' confidence in the future economic development of
Kazakhstan, the growing needs of the energy sector and the export
potential of this market," Interfax reported citing the AES press
release. AES
operates the Ekibastuz GRES in Pavlodar oblast as well as a number of
heating and energy plants in East Kazakhstan oblast. (Interfax) |
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Transport and Telecommunications |
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Kazakhstani-Turkish
cellular telecommunications provider GSM-Kazakhstan, operator of the
K'Cell and Aktiv trademarks, plans to invest over USD 70 Million into
equipment and network development in 2004, up from USD 66 Million last
year, GSM-Kazakhstan Marketing Department head Maya Miridzhanashvili
announced at a press conference in Almaty this week. According
to Miridzhanashvili, the GSM-Kazakhstan network now operates in over 100
cities and towns in Kazakhstan. The company installed 226 of a planned
600 base station improvements in 2003. Some 400 more base stations will
be installed in 2004, she added. In
order to improve customer satisfaction, GSM-Kazakhstan is also nearing a
deal with rival cellular provider Kar-Tel (operator of K-Mobile) to
enable users of each company to exchange SMS text messages free of
charge. GSM-Kazakhstan has over 1 million subscribers, or 70% of the total cellular market in Kazakhstan. The company also provides international roaming services through 186 partner-operators in 86 countries. The company is 51% owned by Fintur Holdings BV (which in turn is 60% owned by Sonera and Turkcell. The other 49% interest in GSM-Kazakhstan is owned by state telecommunications company Kazakhtelecom. (Golden Eagles Partners) |
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Money Markets |
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KZT/USD market rate dynamics during the week |
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Currency Rates as of 2 February 2004 |
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Note: Some of the information quoted in this issue has been provided for us by Golden Eagle Partners. For more information on those articles, please contact: jmann1@AOL.com or newswire@ges.kz |
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For
more information and other publications please contact Yelena Kovalenko
at +7 (3272) 596 708
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