The twenty-eight-year-old president of the national oil company KazakhOil, Nurlan Kapparov, has invited the former deputy general director of Mangystau-MunaiGas, Boris Cherdabaev, to become KazakhOil's vice-president of production. He has also offered the former president of Kazneftekom oil company, Mr. Kaniev, to become the vice-president of marketing and transportation. Kapparov, who was appointed to head KazakhOil last April, is said to be a successful entrepreneur, but he lacks experience in oil and gas production. With new "oil generals" Kapparov is expected to gain more public support. KazakhOil, which is 100% state owned, produces about 5 million tonnes of oil annually. All of the state's shares in Kazakhstani oil and gas companies were transferred to KazakhOil last May. After that, the company was estimated to have a capitalisation of about US $5bn. (Reuters)

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Last week, the Kazakhstani government responded to falling world oil prices and calls for tax revisions by lowering the road taxes imposed earlier on KazakhOil. Mr. Kapparov, the President of KazakhOil, said that road taxes were cut to KZT 2,000 (US $26) per tonne of gasoline and diesel oil will not be taxed at all. The former road taxes were KZT 4,000 and KZT 3,000, respectively. (Reuters)

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Kazakhstan's largest oil producer Mangystau-MunaiGas (based in Aktau, Western Kazakhstan) has reportedly suspended operations at its largest oil field Kalamkas. The press has reported a variety of reasons for the stop. The Kazakhstani government sent a delegation of officials including KazakhOil and Central Asia Petroleum representatives to Aktau on July 29 to clarify the situation. (Indonesia's Central Asia Petroleum owns 60% of the company's shares and KazakhOil owns 25%)

Kar-Tel became the winner of an auction for a license to use a frequency band for the GSM standard of cellular telecommunication. The auction was conducted by the Ministry of Transport and Communications on July 31. The winner offered US $67.5m for a 15-year license, and this sum must be transferred to the state budget within 20 days of the auction. Kar-Tel, a joint venture between Turkey's Rumeli-Telecom and a local company, was established in 1998 to operate in the Kazakhstani market. Kazakhtelecom was the first to obtain a license to use GSM, and Kar-Tel is now the second licensed operator. According to the Minister of Transport and Communications, Erkin Kaliev, "Kazakhstan may expect a real boost in cellular telecommunications". (Interfax)

The dates for a US $100m Eurobond issue by Kazakhstan's electric grid operator KEGOC will depend mostly on the global capital market situation and on Moody's and Standard & Poor's ratings, said company chairman Aset Nauryzbaev at a news conference last week. The two rating companies are currently in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, and are expected to finish their work on KEGOC within a month. Cooper's & Lybrand valued KEGOC's fixed assets at US $2.5bn. The company has an annual turnover of US $150m and its electric power lines total 25,000 km. As a successor of Kazakhstanenergo, the company owes about US $340m to the Russian utility company RAO EES Russia. (Interfax & Reuters)

The management of the state railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy intends to sell certain railway businesses to private companies, the general director of the company, Ablai Myrzakhmetov, told Interfax. A tender has already been announced to sell the railway ticket business. Another tender is being prepared to transfer the luggage handling business to private companies. According to Mr. Myrzakhanov, the move will help to solve a corruption problem at the railway. Temir Zholy is a natural monopoly which comprises three formerly separate railway companies. After partial privatisation, it will retain tracks and rolling stock as state property.

According to Reuters, the company is also planning to make a Eurobond issue after Ernst & Young completes the company's audit in 1999. Company spokesman Baurzhan Baimukhanov did not disclose the exact amount of the issue. He said that funds from the placement were earmarked to build facilities for the production of spare parts for rolling stock. These parts are now imported.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Finance have approved an increase in the authorised capital of ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan to KZT 1,800,000,000 (US $23,376,23). This is almost three times as much as the initial authorised capital. The total bank capital now stands at KZT 2.7bn (US $35,064,935) and includes the bank's reserve capital plus retained profits. ABN AMRO was the first and is the largest international financial institution in Kazakhstan. It is planning to establish more branches throughout the country and therefore needed this large capital increase. The bank also has had an asset management company operating in Kazakhstan since January. (Panorama)