The U.S.-Kazakhstani joint venture TengizChevroil (TCO), will soon resume crude oil transportation from the Tengiz oilfield, Western Kazakhstan, via Azerbaijan and Georgia. The transportation was stopped in early February due to high transport tariffs given the current world oil prices. TCO was seeking to reduce the tariffs to USD 5 from USD 7 per one tonne. Negotiations with the Georgian party were successful and now the company lays hopes on Azerbaijan. (Reuters)

According to an Interfax source, of the 8.3 million tonnes of oil that TCO recovered in 1998 only 40% was delivered to European markets through a pipeline to Samara (Russia). Most of the remaining 60% was delivered by rail via Baku (Azerbaijan) and Batumi (Georgia).

Another piece of good news for TCO is that Kazakhstan is completing plans for a project to reconstruct a pipeline connecting the Tengiz oilfield with the Caspian port of Aktau. "This will help to transport an additional 5 million tonnes of Tengiz oil via the Caspian Sea", the Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade, Mukhtar Ablyazov, said at press conference last week. (Reuters)

The Sokolovsko Sarbaisky Mining and Concentrating Plant (SSMCP), Kazakhstan's largest iron ore producer based in the north of Kazakhstan, has reported a 40% reduction in its sales in 1998 compared with 1997. This was because the main consumers of SSMCP's products, Magnitogorsk Metal Plant (Russia) and Ispat Karmet (Kazakhstan), diminished considerably their purchases of iron ore. The plant, therefore, had to reduce the output by 34.8% compared to 1997. In 1998 its sales totalled KZT 12.7bn (about USD 150m) and profitability made up 16.4%. The plant paid KZT 3.4bn in taxes and other mandatory payments. (Interfax)

The PRAGMA Corporation, a USAID contractor, will help Bank CentreCredit to float its shares on the KASE. The relevant memorandum was signed between the parties on 10 February. According to its Deputy Chairman, Kambar Shalgimbaev, the bank wants 10% of its shares (amounting to KZT 50-70m) to be listed on the KASE. He said that the bank's shares have not been freely traded so far. Instead, they were placed among the bank's shareholders through private placement. It is expected that the KASE will start trading these shares in early April. (Panorama)

Air Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan's national carrier, is reportedly being restructured. The Minister of Transport and Communications, Serik Burkitbaev, told journalists that the Kazakh government is prepared to issue a guarantee of USD 200m for Air Kazakhstan to buy at least four Boeing or Airbus jets. He was quoted as saying that Kazakhstan intends to form a single united national airline. "We, therefore, have adopted a programme that will strengthen the national carrier and will allow it to compete with those international companies that fly to Europe and Asia." (Reuters)