Kazakh Premier Massimov has met with U.S. Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar yesterday to discuss the development of bilateral energy cooperation as well as the activities of American companies in Kazakhstan’s energy sector, inform.kz reports.

With relations stretching back to 1992, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev  visited Washington for the first time at the invitation of President George H.W. Bush, the month of July proved to be active in bilateral relations.

On July 9, former U.S. ambassadors to Kazakhstan and Russia in Washington met to discuss the role of Kazakhstan in the modern world. The debate generated great interest in the American capital, and about 200 guests including politicians and businessmen attended the event. The event was held as part of a series of lectures about Kazakhstan, including a Kazakh Culture Festival in Washington.

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energy · Investment · Kazakhstan · Nazarbaev · oil & gas · strategic partnership

Source: RT

Peter Necarsulmer, Chairman and CEO of The PBN Company says the importance of Russia to BP means that its stake in the TNK-BP joint venture is unlikely to be on the table, despite the events of two years ago.

energy · Russia · TNK-BP

Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, one of the owners of OAO Uralkali, is seeking to create the world’s largest potash fertilizer company. As Vedomosti reports, Karimov’s plans appear to include a merger or an acquisition of OAO Silvinit and a purchase of the controlling stake in Belaruskali.

Only a month and a half following the purchase of 53.2% share of Uralkali  Karimov and his partners, the billionaire is already looking to expand his holding. Allegedly, Kerimov met with the Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on behalf of Uralkali and offered to buy 51% of the state-owned Belaruskali for $7.5 billion. Belaruskali is one of the three largest potash companies in the world and has been recently slated for privatization, with key investors from China already expressing interest.

Kerimov has been also in talks with Petr Kondrashev to buy more Silvinit shares, of which he already owns a 25% stake. If the deal with Silvinit will be finalized, the production of potash fertilizers in Russia will be concentrated in the hands of Kerimov. Shareholders of Uralkali have already submitted a request to Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) to assess whether such merger will be safe for the market.

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Belarus · potash fertilizers · Russia

The Ministry of Finance disclosed its plans to sell minority stakes of ten major companies in the biggest privatization project since the early 1990s, reports Vedomosti. The sale is intended to raise a total of over $29 billion to cover budget gaps over the next three years.

On July 26, a preliminary meeting chaired by Prime Minister Putin discussed and approved the plans to sell stakes in the following state companies via IPOs, SPOs or non-public selling methods:

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privatization · Russia · state corporations

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed 34 investment agreements to the tune of €2 billion during the Kazakh-German Economic Forum in Astana last weekend. Kazakhstan and Germany are to intensify cooperation in the fields of agriculture and mechanical engineering, biotechnologies, traditional and alternative energy as well as light, food and pharmaceutical industries, telecommunications, construction and space technology.

As of today, there are more than 800 German-Kazakhstan enterprises set up in Kazakhstan, including Siemens, BASF, Thyssen Krupp, Metro, Deutsche Bank and Claas. In 2009 Germany was sixth place in the list of trade partners. In addition to business interests, Germany actively supported Kazakhstan in its desire to chair the OSCE and is now contributing to Kazakhstan’s efforts to WTO accession.

The aforementioned 34 agreements with Germany are a valuable addition to Kazakhstan’s earlier agreements with several other countries. In July, Rusatomprom and Kazatomprom signed an atomic energy agreement. In June, Kazakhstan signed deals with China in energy, agriculture, petrochemicals and several other sectors in June, and about 20 agreements with South Korea in atomic energy, mechanical engineering, petrochemicals, agriculture and several other sectors in April.

Germany · Investment · Kazakhstan · Nazarbaev

In the last two days, the situation around the felling of the Khimki forest has escalated to a scandal of a national – even international – magnitude (see Radio Free Europe, The Canadian Press). It seems that now, the only way to save this rare strip of forested land in Moscow is to wait for the traditional “divine intervention” from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Moscow’s dire environmental situation, highlighted by the unprecedented heat wave, makes this waiting a serious challenge.

On Thursday, 22 July, about 50 activists came to the White House to present Putin or one of his deputies with pieces of timber from the trees felled in the forest. Police, however, quickly broke up the rally and detained five activists, among them the leader of the oppositional movement “The Left Front.” A couple of hours later, early Friday morning, unknown people in black masks (“who looked like radical football fans”) came to the site and started a fight, in which a number of activists were injured. Instead of the police, a group from the Special Purpose Police Unit (OMON) arrived. They detained at least six people, among them, the leader of the environmentalists Evgeniya Chirikova, correspondent of the Radio Liberty Yuriy Timofeev, and a journalist from Novaya Gazeta Elena Kotuychenko. It is unclear on what charges people have been detained, but it is against the Criminal Code of the RF to detain journalists while they are on professional duty.

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Khimki · Russia

Just weeks after mysterious and unannounced repair works on the Leningrad Highway paralyzed transportation between Moscow and the Sheremetyevo International Airport, tensions around this highway have been stirred once again.

The recent artificially-created five-hour-long traffic jams on the Leningrad Highway emphasized the need for an alternative route, which according to state officials, can be built only in the currently forested area. Russian authorities want to ease traffic congestion on the way to Sheremetyevo by clearing large areas of the Khimki forest to make way for the construction of an $8 billion highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg.

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Russia

The Government of Kazakhstan established customs duties on exports of crude oil and oil products. A corresponding resolution was introduced to the Prime Minister by Vice Minister of Economic Development and Trade Marat Kussainov last week. According to the resolution, the ministry calculates the rates of customs duties on exports of certain types of oil products quarterly on the basis of monthly average prices on world oil markets.

In accordance with the resolution, the duty on light oil will be $99.71 per ton, $66.47 per ton for heavy oil and $20 for crude oil. Recall that the export duty on raw materials, including oil, was introduced in Kazakhstan on May 17, 2008 and was discontinued on January 26, 2009. At the time of cancellation the duty amounted to $139.8 per ton.

It should be noted that the export duty on oil is for all exporters, except those operating production sharing agreements. Today there are about 15 companies, among them a consortium developing Kashagan, Kazakhstan’s largest field, led by Eni, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and other companies.

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duties · Kazakhstan · oil & gas

At the helm: DST’s Yuri Milner. Image: CNBC

Digital Sky Technologies announced two major deals this week, and another in the pipeline, which would make it the uncontested King of the Russian internet. DST owns stakes in popular Russian sites Vkontakte, Mail.ru and Ddnoklassniki, as well as 10% of Facebook.

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Digital Sky Technologies · internet · Milner · Russia · technology

Integra Group and WesternGeco (subdivion of Shlumberger), announced an agreement to set up a joint venture company, IG Seismic Services Ltd., to provide land seismic acquisition services, interpretation and data processing in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan and other transition zone waters. The venture will operate a combined capacity of more than 40 seismic crews and nearly 900 CPUs of computer processing power with best-in-class software for data processing and interpretation.

“We are very excited about expanding our capabilities by joining forces with WesternGeco. The agreement will boost the service range and expand the market presence of our core seismic segment. With the introduction of WesternGeco personnel and technology, the new venture will ensure efficient development of our joint seismic operations while the combination of our processing centers in Russia and Kazakhstan will substantially increase our data processing capabilities. We believe this move is in line with our strategy to increase our presence in businesses with higher added value and further improve our technology,” said Antonio Campo, Integra’s Chief Officer.

“This new venture enhances the competitive strength and geographical footprint of its partners while providing additional business opportunities and expansion of the client base. In addition, the synergy created will bring significant value to customers as they expand their operations throughout the area,” commented Carl Trowell, president of WesternGeco.

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