The Atyrau Oil Refinery (AOR), in Western Kazakhstan, processed 2,700,900 tonnes of crude oil in 1998, down from 4,108,600 tonnes in 1997. It produced 324,100 tonnes of gasoline (501,700 tonnes in 1997) and 834,500 tonnes of diesel fuel (1,324,900 tonnes in 1997). According to the acting director of the refinery, Baurzhan Bisembaev, the reduction was due to the dramatic drop in oil product prices in Russia caused by the financial crisis there. As a result, AOR's products became non-competitive and sales fell. He characterised last year as "the most difficult" since 1953. The refinery dismissed 800 workers in 1998 and expects still further reductions in 1999. As of today, the refinery owes KZT 2.988bn to its creditors. Its payables total KZT 3.65bn and wage arrears total KZT 65m. Nonetheless, the refinery paid about KZT 1.5bn in taxes in 1998. The director said that the refinery will begin revamping its facilities in 1999. A feasibility study is being completed by Japan's Marubeni Corporation, (which earlier committed to restructure the AOR) and will be presented to AOR's management in early February. (Interfax)

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TengizChevrOil (TCO), in Western Kazakhstan, intends to produce 9.3 million tonnes of oil 1999, which is more than 900 tonnes more than was produced in 1998, General Manager Ken Godar said to Interfax. He said that in 1998, 3.3-3.5 million tonnes of crude was transported by pipe via Samara (Russia), and the other crude was transported in tankers by rail and sea to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Estonia, and the Ukraine. Despite falling world oil prices, the amount of investment in TCO will remain unchanged in the current year and will total USD 436m. The company's shareholders are: Chevron—45%, KazakhOil—25%, Mobil—25%, and LUKARCO—5%.

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Embamunaigas, which is part of KazakhOil, has been granted a 31-year license to explore and recover hydrocarbons in the Kzylkog region of Western Kazakhstan. The area totals 9,517 km². According to some estimations, Kzylkog holds approximately 37 million tonnes of recoverable oil reserves. Exploratory drilling will start this year. If commercial reserves are discovered, production will start in 5 years. (Interfax)

The Jezkazgan Copper Smelter, part of Kazakhmys Corporation, output 220,168 tonnes of blister copper in 1998 compared with 211,816 tonnes in 1997. This result is the highest ever achieved by the smelter. According to the company's press secretary, the production of copper ore also increased in 1998 to 23,760,000 tonnes, and it was the first year that ore processing reached 24,435,000 tonnes. The smelter, which is located in the Karaganda region, Central Kazakhstan, consists of five mines and two concentrating factories. (Reuters)

The national electric grid operating company KEGOC is currently negotiating with World Bank (WB) representatives for a 20-year USD 266m loan. The loan is intended to upgrade Kazakhstan's electric energy network. This information was released to Interfax by KEGOC's president, Aset Nauryzbaev. He said that a WB mission in December 1998 approved the company's modernisation plan. A final decision is expected by the end of 1999.

According to its president, KEGOC intends to make a USD 2.4m bond issue on the Kazakhstani market early this year. Prior to the issue, the company is expected to be listed on the KASE. KEGOC, which operates 23.5 km of high-voltage electric lines, was planning a Eurobond issue in 1998. However, it had to give this up due to the crisis on international markets. In 1998, Standard & Poor's assigned a "BB-" rating to the company and Moody's estimated it at "Ba3" which corresponds to Kazakhstan's sovereign rating. The company's international audit was made by Arthur Andersen. According to Coopers & Lybrand, the value of the company's fixed assets is USD 2.5bn. (Interfax & Reuters)