OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 12% fall in oil output in the first nine months of 2016, compared to the daily average it maintained in the same period last year. Lower production and sustained low oil prices meant that revenues in Jan.-Sept. 2016 fell by 35%, compared to last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China wants to invest $11b in developing tourism on the banks of Lake Baikal in southern Kazakhstan, media reported. It said that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between two companies to start exploring the best way to invest the Chinese cash. Attracting Chinese tourist to Lake Baikal would be a potential boom for the area.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of a former mid-ranking police officer based in Almaty who they say headed a crime ring that stole luxury cars from Moscow and resold them in Kazakh cities. The allegations show the extent of corruption within Kazakhstan’s police force. Prosecutors said that the corrupt police officer and his gang stole 500 cars over 10 years. Each car was worth between $50,000 and $120,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks, rebranded to Qazkom. The bank’s management chose its 25th anniversary to introduce the new branding. Kenes Rakishev, a powerful businessman with ties to the elite, owns, directly and indirectly, 71% of Qazkom. Mr Rakishev has gradually increased his shareholding, essentially taking it over from founder Nurzhan Subkhanberdin last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three Kazakh women weightlifters were stripped of their 2012 Olympic gold medals after new tests showed that they had used banned drugs. The three Kazakh weightlifters were Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova. The international weightlifting authorities are now considering banning Kazakhstan from all competitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
ALMATY, OCT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan blocked demonstrations in support of two imprisoned organisers of protests earlier this year against proposed changes to the country’s land code.
The two land activists, Maks Bokayev and Talgat Ayan, have been on trial in Atyrau since Oct. 12 accused of trying to organise a coup, in one of the most highly-charged and politically sensitive trials this year. The demonstrations that they are accused of organising in March attracted wide popularity and spread across Kazakhstan, unnerving the government.
Apparently worried that the high- profile nature of the trial and the latent support for the defendants might trigger another round of mass protests, the authorities have been rounding up people gathering in support of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan.
Local media has reported that several people have been detained trying to attend these rallies and one activist said that he was beaten up by unknown men shortly after attending a rally in Atyrau.
For supporters of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan, the trial is a sham.
Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, a human rights activist, told The Conway Bulletin that she thought it was a purely political process.
“The judge pretends that she is neutral and listens carefully to both sides but this is a regular political trial in an authoritarian country, nothing new,” she said.
The authorities, though, have said the two men are coup plotters who had teamed up with Tokhtar Tuleshov, a millionaire brewery owner from Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan. Mr Tuleshov has been detained since January and is also charged with a coup attempt.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG EP, a London-traded subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state owned Kazmunaigas, said its oil production in the first nine months of the year fell by 1.3% to 9.1m tonnes, compared to the same period last year. Importantly, production from Ozenmunaigas and Embamunaigas, two of its loss-making subsidiaries in the west of the country, grew by 1% in this period.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Amsterdam-based Nostrum Oil & Gas continues to navigate through the troubled waters of low oil prices. Its stock has rallied heavily in recent weeks.
The positive trend in the London stock market could be tied to the promises of a better 2017, when the company aims to complete an expansion and boost production.
CEO Kai-Uwe Kessel is confident production will more than double in just two years. “Our main focus continues to be the completion of GTU3, which is on track to be delivered on budget in 2017, and which will more than double our production capacity,” Mr Kessel said in a statement.
In the first part of 2016, however, average daily production fell to around 36,000 barrels. Now the company says that it expects to boost output to 40,000 barrels/day by year end. Sustained low oil prices, together with production and sales hiccups, have hit revenues, down 35% in the first nine months of 2016 to $240m, compared to the same period last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Saudi Arabia where he signed deals with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, including a deal to boost nuclear cooperation. Kazakhstan is one of the biggest producers of uranium in the world and has been trying to build up a market to sell to.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
ALMATY, OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhs bought just under 31,000 cars in the first nine months of the year, a drop of 59% compared to the same period last year.
The car market is a key indicator of Kazakhstan’s economic health and its collapse since an oil price crash in mid-2014 has mirrored the Kazakh economy. In Q1 2014, by comparison, Kazakhs bought 35,000 new cars, easily outstripping total sales for the first nine months of this year.
Analysts have said that consumers are not buying cars because of a 50% cut in the value of the tenge and higher inflation which have made them vastly more expensive.
Putting a positive spin on the news, Oleg Alfyorov, president of Kazavtoprom, the car industry union, said that he thought the market had bottomed-out and that sales would start to rise again soon.
“Kazakhstan’s car market has been in a state of recession since the second half of 2014. But this year, sales have reached a market plateau, from which retailers can start moving upwards,” he said.
Mr Alfyorov also pointed out the increased share of locally produced cars in total sales, which grew to 24%, almost double the share in 2014.
“Quarterly Kazakhs bought about 10,000 new cars. This figure has been stable since the beginning of the year.
At the same time, an increasing number of buyers preferred locally- assembled cars,” he said.
Still, this is a long way from where the industry was a few years ago when foreign car makers were eager to get a foothold in Kazakhstan’s growing manufacturing sector to launch into what they thought would be a lucrative Central Asian market.
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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)
