Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Oil field in Kazakhstan to expand in 2016

DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil (TCO), the Chevron- led consortium operating the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan, said it increased output in the first nine months of 2015 and that it intends to push ahead with its expansion project in the first half of next year. In January-September 2015, Tengizchevroil produced 20.3m tonnes of crude oil, up 2.5% compared to the same period last year when it produced 19.8m tonnes. The so-called Future Growth Project expansion project will cost around $38b to complete and will increase output by 44%. Earlier this year, TCO delayed its expansion plans because of the low price of oil.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

First Starbucks opens in Kazakhstan

DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dozens of people queued up outside the MEGA shopping mall in Almaty to buy a coffee from Kazakhstan’s first Starbucks cafe. MEGA had previously said two Starbucks shops would open in 2016.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Kazakhstan denies IS child camp allegation

DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh ambassador to Singapore, Yerlan Baudarbek-Kozhatayev, put out a statement denying reports in Malaysia’s media that the Islamic extremist group IS had established a training map for children in Kazakhstan. Malaysian media had been quoting Malaysia’s counter- terrorism chief.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Currencies: US dollar, Kazakh tenge

DEC. 16/18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the weeks leading up to an interest rate increase by the US Federal Reserve Bank on Wednesday, Central Banks in the South Caucasus and Central Asia fretted about possible repercussion on their own currencies.

Janet Yellen, who chairs the Fed, said interest rates would go up by 25 basis points from 0.25% to 0.50%. The Fed had postponed the decision for months and a rate increase was widely expected.

What will happen now to Emerging Markets? The US dollar will inevitably become more attractive to investors, which are likely to pull capital away from Emerging Markets back to the US.

The day after the rate increase, the value of the dollar grew by 1% against six major currencies. This, in turn, could further depress the price of commodities and pressure currencies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Shortly after the Fed’s decision, the Georgian Central Bank also raised its interest rates to 8%, up from a level of 7.5%. And the following morning the Central Bank of Azerbaijan issued a statement saying it expects the new rate to affect the currency markets in the region.

Kazakhstan had been on holiday while all this was happening, celebrating the 24th anniversary of its independence, but the impact on the Central Bank and the tenge have been tangible for weeks. The Central Bank twice skipped its monthly policy meetings in November and December, leaving analysts puzzled. On Friday, when Kazakhstan woke up from its festivities, the tenge hit an all-time low of 342.5/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Kazakhstan’s navy tests missile

DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s navy has test fired for the first time an anti-aircraft missile from one of its warships in the Caspian Sea, eurasianet.org reported. Caspian Sea littoral states have been increasing their naval presence and armaments in the Caspian Sea over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Kazakhstan sells off Batumi terminal

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The oil terminal at the port of Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, will be among the companies that Kazakhstan sells off to investors during a privatisation round in 2016 and 2017. In 2008, KazTransOil, a subsidiary of state-owned Kazmunaigas, bought the Batumi oil terminal. Kazakhstan needs to sell off state-owned assets to raise cash.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Kazakhstan shifts to tenge

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a government meeting, Kazakh Central Bank chief Daniyar Akishev said all prices should be given in tenge. One of Mr Akishev’s main objectives is to make the tenge more prominent and to de-dollarise the economy. Many goods and services — rent, hotel rooms and luxury goods — are still priced in US dollars.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Currencies: Kazakhstan’s tenge, Kyrgyzstan’s som

DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh tenge keeps hitting record lows against the US dollar, trading around the 310/$1 mark in the second half of this week, and there is little indication that it will reverse this trend. The Central Bank has said it wants to scrap its previous monetary policy and find new solutions. The message it sent was, in essence: “we will play it by ear.” So much for restoring confidence in its monetary policies.

The Kyrgyz som stopped its fall and found its equilibrium at 75.6/$1 this week, the first stable week in months.

All other currencies were steady this week.

Next week, the US Federal Reserve Bank will hold a policy meeting. Analysts are bracing for the first interest rate rise since 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Kazakh Kashagan to restart by end-2016

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said Kashagan would restart production by end-2016. His statement reinforces previous statements from the Kazakh government which have been more optimistic on the Caspian Sea oil field’s start date than Western companies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Kazakh investor to buy BTA Ukraine

DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee said it gave permission to an unnamed private investor from Kazakhstan to buy 50% of BTA Bank Ukraine. BTA Bank in Kazakhstan owns 49.9% of BTA Bank Ukraine. The rest of the shares are indirectly owned by several murky Ukrainian investment companies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)