Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev met with the president of the oil company Hurricane Kumkol Munai, John Kamarniki, last week to discuss the company's activities in Kazakhstan. Hurricane is recovering oil from one of Kazakhstan's largest oil fields, Kumkol, in Central Kazakhstan. The Prime Minister encouraged Mr. Kamarniki to expand Hurricane's operations in Kazakhstan. According to him, the company could, in particular, co-operate with the Shimkent Oil Refinery. Another venture might involve producing gas in the Zhambyl region. In turn, Mr. Kamarniki asked the government to assist the company in obtaining licences to develop a number of other promising oil fields. The request was received favourably by the Prime Minister. (Panorama)

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Losses from the halt of operations at the Kalamkas oil field of MangistauMunaiGas are estimated at KZT 96m (US $1.2m). The vice president of KazakhOil, Murat Salamatov, told the Panorama newspaper that the problems which caused the work stoppage included electric power supply debts and a lack of co-ordination with Kaztransoil on where to pump out crude oil. According to The Globe newspaper, operations at Kalamkas have resumed, and the crude is being shipped to the Pavlodar Oil Refinery. Also, MangistauMunaigas and Kaztransoil have come to an agreement concerning an oil transportation schedule.

The management of Aluminium of Kazakhstan is planning to increase the company's annual production of bauxite at the Krasnooktyabrsk mine to 1 million tonnes from the current output of 400,000 tonnes. This information was disclosed to Interfax-Kazakhstan by Kazakhstan Mineral Resources which owns 28.2% of the shares in Aluminium Kazakhstan. In accordance with its development programme, the company will stick to this production level until the year 2005. Krasnooktyabrsk mine is expected to be the sole raw material supplier to the Pavlodar aluminium plant for the next 50 years. The output of bauxite at the mine grew 2.7% during the first six months of 1998 compared to the same period of 1997. Operating reserves at the first and the third Krasnooktyabrsk open pits are estimated at 14,543,000 and 21,516,000 tonnes, respectively. The company plans to process, respectively, 12,552,000 and 17,056,000 tonnes of these reserves. (Interfax)

The Government of Kazakhstan has awarded Chase Manhattan Plc and Kazkommerts Securities a mandate to offer 15% of the shares of the national telecommunication monopoly Kazakhtelecom (KKT) to a strategic investor. This offering will take place simultaneously with the placement of another 15% of KKT shares which Kazkommerts group acquired from Daewoo (Korea) earlier this year.

Euromoney magazine has named Kazkommertsbank the best bank in Kazakhstan in 1998. This was not the first time that Euromoney noted the achievements of Kazkommertsbank. In 1995, the bank was called the best bank in Central Asia and the Caucasus; in 1997— the best bank in Central Asia. The magazine Central European also awarded Kazkommertsbank the title "best Kazakhstani bank" in June this year. All of these awards confirm the bank's leading position in Central Asia and its contribution to the banking sector in Kazakhstan. (Delovaya Nedelya)