Kazakhstan's national pipeline operator, KazTransOil, is considering raising loans for up to USD 150m in the next two years to upgrade the country's pipelines, said the head of the company late on Wednesday.

He said that KazTransOil, which controls all the oil, oil products, and water pipelines in Central Asia, plans to borrow for terms of five to ten years. (Reuters)

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Hurricane Hydrocarbons Ltd. has contracted to sell approximately 64,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Shymkent Oil Refinery (based in the south-east of Kazakhstan) at USD 62 per tonne (approximately USD 6.95/bbl net of the VAT) for the month of September, 1998. Contracted sales volumes for the months of July and August 1998 averaged approximately 62,000 and 56,000 bpd, respectively. These sales are consistent with the figures used in the company's latest forecast.

Hurricane has requested that Kazakhstan's Antimonopoly Committee review some of the business practices of the Shymkent Oil Refinery. Specifically, the Committee has been asked to review the customs processing agreement between Hurricane and the refinery. Hurricane has been advised that the Committee met with Shymkent officials in early September to discuss this matter.

Hurricane is an independent international energy corporation engaged in the acquisition, exploration and production of oil, principally in the Republic of Kazakhstan. (Reuters)

Despite the crisis on the world's commodities markets, Kazakhmys Corporation is planning to increase its production of copper to 356,000 tonnes in 1998 from 301,000 tonnes in 1997, the president of the corporation, Vladimir Kim, told Reuters. Over the first seven months of 1998, the company produced 192,300 tonnes of refined copper. Mr. Kim said that the copper price decreased almost 30% compared to last year, nonetheless, the company is performing quite efficiently. He didn't give any figures of the company's profitability. According to him, the company reinvested USD 72m in production last year and USD 35m since the beginning of 1998. Samsung Corporation, South Korea, which owns 40% of the shares in Kazakhmys, invested a total of USD 250m between 1995 and 1998. It is planning to invest some USD 25m more in the implementation of an environmental programme in 1999-2000. (Reuters)