PETROLEUM. Analytical journal. New projects, fields’ development, production, processing and transportation of oil and gas, presentation of the companies, statistics on the production of hydrocarbons, monitoring of investment legislation.

Transit. The Beginning

March 19, 2019, marked a new era in the history of independent Kazakhstan. At 7 pm, on national TV channels, the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation. Voicing the decision of resignation, Nazarbayev said that he remains head of the Security Council of Kazakhstan, member of the Сonstitutional Council of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Nur-Otan party and the Assembly of people of Kazakhstan, and also received the status of Elbasy — the Leader of the nation. According to the continuity of power in the country, he said, in case of early termination of the powers of the current President, his powers pass to the Chairman of the Senate before the end of the election term. The next day, the Speaker of the Senate Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took the oath as President. Dariga Nazarbayeva was elected the new Chairman of the Senate. 

Devaluation of Tenge and Trust in the Government

What was the reason for early elections?

The mystery of the early presidential elections in Kazakhstan (see “ Elections. Afterwards ” Petroleum, issue #2-2015) has been solved. After April 29, the day of the elections, the country’s economic situation began to deteriorate even more rapidly. Obviously, at the beginning of the year the government seriously worried that by the winter of 2015-2016, the financial and economic situation in the country could become extremely dire, driving the public’s dissatisfaction and threatening to disrupt the elections. Therefore, the early elections were mostly about economics.

“The Twilight Zone” of Kazakhstan’s Policy

At the end of August 2013, the rating agency Standard & Poors published its assessment on the current financial and economic situation of Kazakhstan. However the most interesting part of this presentation was not about the economy, but more about the politics. The analysts of the Agency said "...the uncertainty is associated with the high centralization of the process of development and implementation of the political decisions and theconfusions regarding the transfer of presidential decision making power is depicting a high political risk.

Disturbing Autumn

Not so long ago the Moody’s International Rating Agency has submitted the next report on the risks for Kazakhstan’s rating. The list of such risks, among others, included: significant dependence of the country’s economy on the prices for energy carriers and the level of unserviced credits. To the factors positive for rating the Moody’s analysts referred good indices of growth in the republic’s GDP, the growth in the volume of direct foreign investments and the export of hydrocarbons, and also budgetary proficit and a rather low level of public debt in regard to GDP.

Caspian Region -The Focus of Geopolitical and Economic Interests in Global Energy

Because of its vast energy resources and geographical location, at the crossroads of east and west, the Caspian region has played and will continue to play an important role in global energy markets. The U.S. policy on Eurasian energy has three basic goals.

The Autumn of the Patriarch. Preschedule presidential elections will be held in Kazakhstan

After adoption of the law «On the leader of the nation» in the last year, a natural question has arisen in the Kazakhstan’s political elite on expediency of participation of the president, already in a new status, in the next presidential elections. The long-term legitimate mandate of “the leader of the nation” has obviously come into contradiction with the necessity to get the next formal mandate of trust during the election campaign.