Kazakhstan: Oil endowment and oil empowerment

Abstract

Kazakhstan became a petro-state in the 1990s, after signing important oil production agreements with several transnational companies. In recent years, Kazakhstan’s government has imposed the revision of former agreements on these corporations. This article contends that said revision has allowed the national players, government and the state oil company, to extend rent-seeking, but that the changes have not been deep enough to attain national oil empowerment. This means that national players do not control the oil cycle – from upstream to export trade – and are unable to secure continued expansion in the oil sector. Both key issues remain in the hands of the foreign companies, although their prominence has diversified following the entry of large Chinese and Russian companies.

Circling the barrels: Kazakhstan’s regime stability in the wake of the 2014 oil bust

“…Much of Kazakhstan's oil, like that of Russia's, was relatively expensive and technically difficult to extract, thus requiring Western help to develop and exploit it. Thus, Kazakh leaders decided to sell oil fields rights to major IOCs (Palazuelos and Fernández 2012), for whom demand took off following Chevron's Tengiz field acquisition in 1993. 14 Chevron's promising deal soon lured a range of other business entities.…”

“…The ownership structure of Kazakhstan's oil enterprises has changed several times through mergers and acquisitions in the industry. Up to the mid-2000s, seven international 'majors', including BP and Chevron, accounted for more than 90% of oil production (Kaiser and Pulsipher 2007;Palazuelos and Fernández 2012).…”

Turkmenistan and the virtual politics of Eurasian energy: the case of the TAPI pipeline project

“…At large, any negative assessment of Türkmengaz's technological capability and financial power probes Turkmenistan's perceived capacity to transform its large gas endowment into a resulting form of gas empowerment (Palazuelos & Fernández 2012). In more specific terms, Türkmengaz's current predicament raises many doubts about the capacity of Turkmenistan's gas industry to sustain in full the acceleration that TAPI operationalisation experienced in 2015.…”

Untitled

“…Kaiser and Pulsipher (2007) in commenting on the low participation of the local people in the oil and gas production ventures in Kazakhstan noted that one of the reasons for the government"s decision to regulate the petroleum sector is to build local capabilities through a quota system by Financial Risk and Management Reviews, 2015, 1(1): 27-52 38 ensuring that tender proposals for E&P rights must not only specify the IOCs commitments to infrastructural and economic-social advancements of the HC but also their commitment to engage local personnel and make use of the goods and services of local related businesses. By the local content requirements of Kazakhstan, KazMunaiGas (KMG) which is the national oil and gas exploration and production company is guaranteed the right to be the first to tender on all new oil blocks with a minimum ownership of 50% (Subsoil Law, 2005;Palazuelos and Fernández, 2012).…”