The U.S. company CCL Oil has won a lawsuit against the Kazakhstani government in the Kazakh Supreme Court. The company appealed the Kazakh government's decision to transfer to the national company KazakhOil an 87.9% stake in the Pavlodar Oil Refinery which is managed by CCL under a concession contract dated March 7, 1997. The judge for commercial concerns ruled that KazakhOil must return the entire stake to the State Property and Privatisation Department. The latter shall transfer the shares to CCL pursuant to the concession agreement. (Interfax)

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The Kazakhstani Antimonopoly Committee (KAC) has ruled that the national oil company KazakhOil liquidate its intermediate export subsidiaries Munai-Impex and Kazakhoil-Kommerts. In addition, KazakhOil has undertaken steps to cut prices of crude oil. KAC's Chairman, Nikolai Rodostovets, told journalists on Friday, August 21, that the price of one tonne of crude has been as low as US $50 in the second half of 1998 compared to US $66-71 at the beginning of the year.

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Shymkentnefteorgsintez (the Shimkent Oil Refinery, SOR) located in South Kazakhstan expects that it will increase the degree of crude processing to 85% from the current 55% when its catalytic cracking facility goes into operation in 2000. Thus far, 60% of the construction on the facility has been completed. The SOR uses only 58% of its capacity as it cannot get crude from Western Siberia. Currently, it processes oil from Kazakhstani oil deposits at Kumkol, Aktubinsk, and Makatinsk. (Interfax)

The recent events on Russia's financial markets will not affect the operation of Russia's bank subsidiary Neftekhimbank based in the city of Shimkent, South Kazakhstan, as the portion of its assets placed in the parent bank in Russian does not exceed 1% of the bank's authorised capital. This information was released to Interfax by the director of the Almaty branch of Neftekhimbank, Sergei Goremykin. However, he doesn't exclude the possibility that some clients may leave if the crisis in Russia continues. (Interfax).

Khimkompleks, a producer of mineral fertilisers based in the city of Aktau, Western Kazakhstan, has resumed operations after standing idle since December 1997. The company comprises three plants of which one is Kazakhstan's sole producer of ammonia. It is currently supported by the Kazakhstani government while formerly it was rented by the Mangyshlak Nuclear Power Plant (MAEK). The latter continues to supply electric power free of charge to the company on terms of sharing its products in the proportion of 1:3.5. To provide continuous operations, the company needs US $3.5m per month in financing for the next three months. (Interfax)

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The Shimkent-based JSC Phosphor has announced a tender to sell a 90% stake in the authorised capital of the closed joint-stock company Shimkentphospor, a producer of yellow phosphorus, phosphoric salts, fertilisers, and detergents. With an authorised capital of approximately KZT 2.02bn (US $26m), the cost of 90% of the shares is estimated as the total of JSC Phosphor's debts—wage arrears, regress and tax debts, plus previous investor expenses as of September 1998—but not less than KZT 750m (US $9.6m). Of the total sum, 50% must be paid by October 1, 1998 and the rest is to be paid before November 1, 1998. The tender is scheduled to take place in the city of Shimkent on September 1.(Kazakhstanskaya Pravda)