News

Weightlifter Nadezhda Nogay and discus thrower Maria Telushkina received punishment for using prohibited performance-enhancing drugs. This was reported by the Kazakhstan National Anti-Doping Center (KazNADC).

Weightlifter Nadezhda Nogay, five-time world champion in various age categories, first had a positive doping test four years ago, before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which she ultimately didn’t attend.

After a lengthy trial, she was disqualified for four years with the wording: «use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.»

The weightlifter has already served most of the term, since the beginning of her disqualification was on June...

Dariga Nazarbayeva commented on the death of her son Aisultan and asked the public for understanding and respect for her family during this tragedy. This was reported on the Facebook page of the Foundation of the ex-President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

«My family is in deep mourning due to the death of our beloved Aisultan. In this difficult time for our family, we hope that the public is understanding and respectful of our irreparable loss,» the Foundation’s message reads.

The news of the death of Nazarbayev’s grandson emerged in media on August 16. Aisultan Nazarbayev died on the...

At the end of June, the Law “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Improving the Business Climate” was adopted. While the draft law was being discussed, it was proposed to introduce into law a definition of a “deadlock” situation, as well as options to resolve it.

In a broad sense, deadlock is a state of inaction caused by opposition or lack of compromise in resolving issues between meeting participants or shareholders. During the draft law discussion, it was proposed to define a deadlock as a situation that occurs when the participants of...

Oil supply from non-OPEC countries will amount to 62.11 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, compared to 65.14 million bpd in 2019 (a decrease of 3.03 million bpd). This was reported by Interfax with reference to the monthly report from the OPEC.

Experts increased the 2019 supply level by 120,000 bpd up to 65.14 million bpd and increased the 2020 estimated supply by 350,000 bpd up to 62.11 million bpd. Thus, it is now projected that non-OPEC countries will reduce oil production in 2020 by 3.03 million bpd, not 3.26 million.
The projection was mainly revised due to the...

The meeting in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League between FC Dynamo Brest and FC Astana may be postponed or transferred to a neutral field. This was reported by Pressball.

According to the publication, there is a real possibility that the game between the strongest clubs of Belarus and Kazakhstan will not take place in Brest as scheduled.

«If the tense situation in Belarus lasts for another week, then the Champions League in Brest might be under challenge. In any case, the UEFA and FC Astana are probably closely following the Belarus news. They might even...

Kazakhstan increased coal mining in January through July compared to the same period last year, said Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov.

At the start of 2020, the ministry expected yearly coal mining to amount to 120 million tons, of which 38 million tons were planned for export. Based on the results of the first half-year of 2020, Kazakhstan mined 54.7 million tons of coal, with a 1.9% increase compared to the same period last year: in 2019, total coal mining in Kazakhstan was 111 million tons, with 28 million tons exported.

«Due to growth...

Tengizchevroil has published its operating results for the first half of 2020.

In the first half of this year, volume of oil production at the Tengiz oil field amounted to 14.26 million tons, or 112.51 million barrels, which is 4.6% less than in the same period last year. At the same time, the company increased sales of liquefied gas by 7.8%, to 725 thousand tons. Sales of dry gas over the same period decreased by 2.5%, to 3.9 billion cubic meters, and sales of sulfur remained at the same level, 1.3 million tons.

From January to June, direct payouts from...

The national oil company of Kazakhstan KazMunayGas (KMG) recorded a decline in almost all segments of its activities during the first half of 2020. Among the most affected are crude oil refining and oil productproduction because KMG was forced to reduce both of them in order to avoid overstocking.

Big global private oil companies operating in Kazakhstan such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell have also announced multi-billion-dollar losses.

Upstream

The level of oil and gas condensate production at KMG, which has stakes in various production companies, decreased by 3.1% in the first half of this year, to 11.3 million tons...

According to the Ministry of Energy press release, oil rights will be provided via an online auction starting from September 1. 

The new rules are stipulated by a new version of Code «On Subsurface and Subsurface Use» which envisages online auctions for licenses.

«While all previous auctions were held in the paper format, which was not perfect, from September 1 of this year, those who are interested in oil rights will be able to participate in auctions online,» the agency’s press release said.

New online auctions are expected to be transparent and improve the competitive environment.

Earlier in...

According to the Kazakhstani Ministry of Energy, average daily oil production in July was 1.313 million barrels or 101% of the country’s obligations.

As part of OPEC+ deal, Kazakhstan was obliged to produce 1.319 million barrels per day in July.

In June Kazakhstan exceeded its obligations as well. That month the oil output without condensate was 5.3 million tons or 1.297 million barrels a day with a compliance rate of 105%. In May, the same indicator showed 71%.

Earlier in April, Kazakhstan has received new obligations under the OPEC+ agreement to cut oil production.

In general, the OPEC + deal...

Kazakhstan’s national airline company Air Astana will not pay dividends for 2019. It was announced by Ernar Zhanadil, co-managing director for finance at the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna.

According to Zhanadil, the payment of dividends at the end of 2019 was not planned, despite the fact that Air Astana received a net profit of 5.7 billion tenge.

«This is primarily due to the fact that the company originally planned to use these funds for its IPO events,» Zhanadil noted at a briefing on Thursday, July 30.

Subsequently, those plans were adjusted to reflect the negative impact of the...

The latest amendments to the legislation on improving the business climate in Kazakhstan will help small businesses expand their current ventures or build new ones. In particular, the requirement to develop design documentation for low-tech constructions has been canceled.

Low-tech constructions are mobile complexes made of containers, blocks and modules; single-story buildings used for trade, catering and consumer service, which are built out of prefabricated constructions; warehouses and storage facilities with a height of no more than 7 meters and an area of up to 2,000 square meters; or open parking lots for 50 spaces or less. They also include...

Music streaming service Spotify is a project created by Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentson. The domain name of Spotify.com was registered in April 2006. The service started its operation on the European market in 2008 and in the United States in 2010. In 2013 a mobile application was developed. In Kazakhstan, it was available through a VPN only.  

This summer Spotify has decided to extend its influence for the East Europe market by connecting with 14 new countries including Kazakhstan. According to Gustav Gyllenhammar, vice president of Spotify on new markets, the estimated number of music fans in...

According to KazAvtoProm, the automotive industry association of Kazakhstan, despite the pandemic, the car market in Kazakhstan is hot and has archived 313.4 billion tenge ($756.8 million) in revenue during the first half of the year. In total, 35,086 new passenger and commercial vehicles were sold there. 

The average new car price is about 10.3 million tenge ($24873), which is 14.7% higher than last year. The most affordable cars on the local market are those that were assembled in Kazakhstan with the price in 7.6 million tenge ($18353) on average.

The same indicator for imported cars is about 13.2 million...

Polymetal International PLC, which mines gold in Kazakhstan and Russia, has announced the second-quarter financial results.

According to the company, the production of gold in the second quarter has increased by 2% up to 358,000 ounces compared to the same period of last year. Particularly, this growth was based on the work of the Kyzyl mining site (Kazakhstan), which has shown high results and compensated losses at the Svetloe mining site in Russia. In total, during the first half of the year, Polymetal produced 723,000 ounces of gold or 4% more than in the last year.

Thanks to the increase...

According to Dunyo news agency, the ABM ORGANICS LLC Uzbekistani-French joint venture company is planning to cultivate industrial cannabis. The new project is supposed to be launched in the Khorezm region.

On July 12, the new venture ABM ORGANICS LLC was created. The official signing ceremony of the founder’s documents was held in Paris. The main owners of the company are Uzbekistani Marafon Finlex and French Opal & Co. 

As Dunyo reports, the new venture is going to find new opportunities in the economy of the future. For instance, the industrial cannabis might be a core element of the green...

Kazatomprom (the National Company of Kazakhstan) is going to extend its low production activity period for one more month. In August the company will gradually increase personnel on the mining sites if the situation with COVID-19 starts to improve.

According to the company, the extension of safety precautions will barely affect an estimated production result in 2020 expected to be from 19,000 to 19,500 tons. All Kazatomprom’s decisions that come to production as well as contract obligations are backed up by the relevant stocks of product. Therefore, the company keeps following a very responsible approach to supply management, including the...

In June Kazakhstan has fulfilled its obligations to cut oil output under the agreement with OPEC+ by 105% according to Interfax-Kazakhstan, citing the country’s Ministry of Energy.

«According to preliminary data, the oil output in June reached 5.3 million tons or 1,297 million barrels per day without including condensates. Thus, the country fulfilled its obligations under the OPEC+ deal by 105% in the month of June,» the Ministry of Energy said in response to a news agency request.

In May Kazakhstan fulfilled its obligations only by 71% and promised to compensate for the lag in August and September...

The Tengizchevroil Company temporarily stopped some types of work at the Tengiz oil field due to COVID-19. This measure will stay in place until the epidemiological situation starts to improve, the Interfax news agency reports.

According to the latest data, 73 Tengizchevroil employees were infected with new coronavirus, as well as 1194 personnel of the company’s contractors.

«We just suspended some work at the oil field. Actually, these are very small projects that do not have any impact on the production cycle. The Future Growth Project has been implemented by 77%; for now, only very critical projects are under...

Various industries were forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to reassess their businesses. The devastating impact of the coronavirus has shown the importance of a sustainable and clean source of energy such as nuclear energy to support utilities around the world. The surge of uranium prices amid a plunge in oil and other commodities prices proves the uniqueness of the uranium market. Stable demand, as well as uranium products oversupply downsizing, helped the market to raise the price by 40% in 2020.

The Samruk-Kazyna holding, the majority stakeholder of Kazatomprom, took into consideration the positive market environment and good performance of...

The new 500-megawatt wind power plant will be built in Uzbekistan under a deal between the Uzbekistani Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade and Masdar Company from the United Arab Emirates. 

In terms of the contract, the value of investments is about $600 million. After the project will be completed, about 1,300 new jobs will be created.  

The construction should start before the end of this year. As expected the first stage, a 250-megawatt power plant, should be launched in the mid of 2022 and the whole project will be over in 2023.

Officials expected the wind power plant...

According to a rule of the Chief Sanitary Officer of the West Kazakhstan Region, a quarantine is declared at the Karachaganak oil and gas field. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO), the operating company, has confirmed that an employee has tested positive for new coronavirus.

As the company’s press service reports, this specialist has been hospitalized and all his contacts were put in quarantine.

«We already know with whom this employee had contacts and all these people were subject to quarantine for further medical examination. KPO is going to follow all local health official rules and is ready to work...

Chairman of Uzbekneftegaz company Mekhriddin Abdullayev told S&P Global Platts edition that  Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are now in discussion to downsize their natural gas supply into China. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for this type of fuel has heavily declined.

According to Abduallayev, the government of China asked to downsize supplies from all three states proportionally.

«The coordination committee which includes all Central Asian states that are natural gas exporters to China now discuss precise volumes of downsizing. The decision has not yet been taken,» Abdullayev stated.

As S&P Global Platts wrote, Uzbekistan provides China...

According to the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, there are 3.6 billion people in the world who remain offline. The organization’s experts met online to discuss how to push for action to extend internet access and boost capacity to fight COVID-19.

Agenda for action

The emergency virtual meeting of the Broadband Commission attracted the attention of over 100 representatives from around the world including stakeholders from international organizations, the tech sector, civil society and academia.

«UN advisory body sets out an Agenda for Action to ensure that the networks the whole world is now relying on are robust...