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The amount of oil production and oil refining has declined for the second day in a row in Kazakhstan. Both industries have suffered a sharp decline in output by 20.8% and 45.8% respectively, according to the Information and Analytical Center for Oil and Gas (IACOG) under the Ministry of Energy.

On July 4, Kazakhstan produced 200,100 tons of oil and 142 million cubic meters of gas, while oil refineries processed 20,200 tons of oil. The price of Brent crude oil that day was $76.11 per barrel, the IACOG reported.

On July 3, oil and gas condensate production amounted to...

German HMS Bergbau AG is planning to put $700 million in lithium production in Kazakhstan once it obtains full control over a local company that runs two lithium fields, according to Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development Marat Karabayev.

«German public company Bergbau has bought 51% of shares of a Kazakhstani business. The German company is now its major stakeholder… They run lithium fields in the eastern part of the country. The exploration work is already done and now we are talking about production,» he told journalists.

As the official noted, a Kazakhstani company will...

KazTransOil, a subsidiary of the national oil company KazMunayGas, reported that in the second quarter this year, it exported 347,100 tons of oil through the Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan pipeline, which stretches across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, compared to 19,200 tons in the first quarter.

«In Q2 2023, KazTransOil exported 347,100 tons of oil from the Tengiz oil field through the seaport of Aktau and further the Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan pipeline. In Q1 2023, KazTransOil exported just 19,200 tons of the Tengiz oil via the same route,» the company said in a statement...

The suspension of oil production in several oil fields in Western Kazakhstan is due to problems with the power supply, KazMunayGaz said in a statement on its website.

The four companies Ozenmunaygasl, Mangistaumunaygas, Karazhanbasmunai and Embamunaigas have suspended oil production on a range of oil fields across the Mangystau and Atyrau regions.

Oil companies say that they will restart oil production as soon as the power supply is restored. However, it is still unclear exactly when the blackout will be over.

On July 3, the Mangystau Nuclear Power Plant (MAEK) reported a power failure after a 130-megawatt reactor suddenly stopped...

According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, one of the crucial tasks the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been assigned is to prevent a geopolitical rift between the East and West.

«At this point in history, the key task of our countries should be the prevention of geopolitical rift between the East and West. The SCO can and must offer the world its vision of sustainable peace across the world,» he said at a meeting of the council of heads of state members of the SCO.

As the president noted, once Kazakhstan presides in the organization, it...

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development Ilyas Ospanov, European companies should come to Kazakhstan, grab a shovel and start digging for those critical materials they need for the production of dual-use products.

«All that has happened recently made one country more attractive for the EU. We can feel that. We can see some real actions now, and I am very glad that we have finally gotten down to business. I always say that Kazakhstan is no longer at the stage of analysis and deep smart solutions. We are at a stage when all...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev congratulated President Joe Biden of the United States on the occasion of Independence Day, which America celebrates on July 4th. In an official telegram, Tokayev also expressed his appreciation of the U.S. leader for his support.

«In his telegram, President Tokayev thanked his American counterpart for support in strengthening security and interconnectivity in Central Asia,» the press service of President Tokayev reported.

Tokayev also praised the rapid development of the Kazakh-American strategic partnership in the spheres of security, energy and investments, among others.

At the end of February 2023, U.S. Secretary of...

Timur Turlov, who controls Freedom Holding registered in the U.S., announced on Instagram that he is going to set up a new 5G mobile operator in Kazakhstan.

The founder of Freedom Holding Corp. said that he is very interested in the communications market and it is quite possible that «telecom will become the new core of the company’s ecosystem, the standing point that will let us flip the viewpoint on the effectiveness of decisions, speed of the decision-making process, minimization of mistakes, product availability and quality of life».

The businessman highlighted that he is going to launch a completely...

According to Igor Babushkin, the governor of the Astrakhan region in Russia, a new multimodal transport corridor with the participation of Russia will be available for Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan while bypassing the territory of Kazakhstan.

The «Southern Transport Corridor» is going to stretch from Kyrgyzstan via Uzbekistan and the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan to the port of Astrakhan in Russia. This is going to be the shortest route bypassing obstacles on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

As Babushkin noted, the new route will boost the trade and economic relations between the countries and will contribute to...

The Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK) believes that the slowdown of both annual and monthly inflation is likely to lead to the lowering of the base rate in July.

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, inflation was 0.5% in June compared to 0.6% in May, which was the lowest rate over the past 18 months. Inflation dropped from 15.9% in May to 14.6% in June year on year.

«As a result, the effective rate (inflation excluded) in the economy was expanded to 2.15%, which makes it highly possible to cut the base rate at...

In an effort to restructure its business, the Qiwi payment system has separated its international business from its business in Russia. The company did so to deliver on its promise to separate its international business from assets in Russia to keep its listing on Nasdaq.

As a result of the restructuring, the group’s enterprises within Russia are now controlled by Qiwi JSC registered in Moscow. On the other hand, Qiwi plc registered in Cyprus will supervise the company’s business in Kazakhstan.

Even though Qiwi plc still has some indirect control over its Russian assets through Qiwi JSC, it is going...

Kazakhstan wants renewable energy sources’ share to grow from the current 4.5% to 15% by 2030, according to Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, who took part in the 12th EU-Kazakhstan High-Level Business Platform.

«The environmental agenda is one of the key elements in Kazakhstan’s strategy for sustainable development. We are planning to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the country’s matrix of energy from 4.5% to 15% by 2030. Given that European countries have already achieved some progress in this field, we are interested in close cooperation with them to implement new joint projects,» Smailov...

Members of the Senate, the upper house of the country’s parliament, have approved amendments to a law on professional qualification issues, public decorations, social protection and education. The updated law takes away the honorary title of the chairman of the Supreme Board of Trustees of the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, Nazarbayev University and Nazarbayev Foundation from Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose name was given to all these educational entities.

«The president of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the only one who can be the chairman of the Supreme Board of Trustees. He also can appoint someone else to...

According to Deputy Prosecutor General Ulan Bayzhanov, Kazakhstan is going to carefully review requests from Russia and the U.S. which both want the country to extradite Nikita Kislitsyn, head of the network security department in F.A.C.C.T. (formerly Group-IB).

On June 28, 2023, several Russian media outlets reported that Kislitsyn was detained in Kazakhstan, citing the F.A.C.C.T.’s press service. Later, Kazakhstani authorities confirmed that the IT specialist was detained on June 22 due to some accusations related to his previous job as a journalist and independent researcher ten years ago. Currently, Kislitsyn is in custody while law enforcement officials «have been...

Members of Kazakhstan’s cabinet and heads of public agencies do not prepare well before coming to the parliamentary meetings and aren’t doing enough in terms of initiating new legislation, according to Yerlan Koshanov, chairman of the Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the country’s parliament.

«The cabinet is not doing enough in terms of initiating new legislation. As you know, there are loads of urgent issues that must be solved as soon as possible for the sake of our society. First of all, we have to solve these problems at the legislative level. Unfortunately, the cabinet doesn’t...

Bereke Bank (a former subsidiary of the Russian Sberbank) has resumed payments, currency transfers and conversion operations in dollars both within Kazakhstan and to foreign financial entities, the bank said in a statement.

«The resumption of operations with the US dollar was a logical step for Bereke Bank, which is striving to restore all its business operations after being removed from the sanctions list. The bank has opened correspondent accounts in dollars both in Kazakhstani banks and in foreign correspondent banks,» the bank reported.

Bereke Bank also supports transactions with the tenge, Russian ruble and...

Vladimir Kim, the richest man in Kazakhstan with a fortune of $4.6 billion, has purchased a 24% share in Hitech Global Holding Limited, which owns a Formula One team called Hitech GP, the company reported on its website with no details concerning the deal.

Established in 2002, Hitech GP has long been a participant in Formula 2 and Formula 3 tournaments. Recently, the team received a license for Formula 1 as well. Hitech GP is expected to join the most prestigious rides in 2026 along with another newcomer a team by German auto giant Audi.

Russian businessman Dmitry Mazepin, the...

Over the first five months of 2023, Kazakhstan reduced the supply of coal to Russia by 16%, according to the Kommersant media outlet, citing the country’s Bureau of National Statistics. The data shows that Kazakhstani coal producers and traders prefer alternative routes, including several European countries, Central Asian neighbors and Turkey.

Over the period from January to April 2023, Kazakhstan exported about 5.5 million tons of coal to Russia, which is a 19.8% decline compared to the same period last year. At the same time, according to market sources, rail shipments (transit through Russia excluded) over the period from January...

Experts from the Center for the Development of Labor Resources JSC (CDLR) conducted a study to see how many jobs might be replaced by Artificial Intelligence in Kazakhstan. It turned out that almost 60% of civil servants could soon be replaced by AI within the country.

«In Kazakhstan, the highest rate of automation can be achieved in the groups of managers and civil servants (up to 59%), employees in the field of administration (48%), high-ranked professionals (46%) and technicians (29%),» the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Kazakhstan said in a statement.

According to...

The criminal case against the founder of the private military group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin is underway and under the control of the Federal Security Service (FSB). As the Kommersant media outlet reported, the legal case has been opened under article 279 «Munity» of the Russian criminal code and is being overseen by the investigation department of FSB.

The accusation of mutiny in Russia can be punished by 12 to 20 years in prison.

On June 25, Dmitry Peskov, official spokesperson for the president of Russia told journalists that the government would drop the criminal charge against Prigozhin, who was expected...

Kazakhstan rolled back in the rating of sustainable development goals to the level of 2020, according to Maulen Ashimbayev, speaker of the Senate, the upper house of the parliament.

As he noted, poverty and the deficit of clean water are key challenges for the country.

Kazakhstan joined the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 and has been working on the implementation of 17 goals since then. Despite many achievements over the past decade, global problems made Kazakhstan roll back in terms of this indicator. This year, Kazakhstan is ranked 66th out of 166 countries in the SDG ranking compared...

Kazakhstan is ready to resume the Astana Process, the peace talks on Syria, if all participants of the negotiations request the country to do so, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its website.

The agency also explained why Kazakhstan announced the 20th round of the Astana Process talks on Syria as the last one on its territory.

According to the foreign ministry, the initial goals of the Astana Process format, specifically the creation of de-escalation zones, the end of bloodshed between the conflicting parties and the prevention of a large-scale humanitarian crisis, have been achieved.

Raiffeisenbank, which is a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in Russia, is going to suspend money transfers in euro to accounts in Kazakhstan and some other countries this July, according to the bank’s website. The restriction will be applied to all accounts owned by individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Due to restrictions imposed by correspondence banks outgoing payments to recipients in Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the UAE, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan won’t be available starting from July 3, 2023, the bank reported.

These restrictions will also be applied to outgoing money transfers in euro to...

The consumer price index, the main inflation indicator in Kazakhstan, is going to be at 14.7% in June, which is lower than the previous forecast of 15.2% year on year (0.57% vs 0.7% month on month), according to Applied Economic Research Center (AERC).

«This slight decrease in assessment is driven by factual results in May, which turned out to be lower than the previous assessment by AERC, and stable decline in inflation over the past three months in a row,» the survey said.

At the time, AERC forecast a price surge in May at...