Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promoted Yerlan Akkenzhenov to the post of minister of energy on March 19. Akkenzhenov had worked as vice minister since mid-2023, when Tokayev had reshuffled the ministry and appointed Almasadam Satkaliyev.
Yesterday, Satkaliyev was moved to the newly-created Atomic Energy Agency under the president, which left the top job at the ministry of energy vacant.
Akkenzhenov had previously worked in the structures affiliated to the flagship oil and gas company Kazmunaigas, principally in oil and petroleum products trading.
He was behind a lawsuit that landed journalist Daniyar Adilbekov in prison last year.
Adilbekov published what a court in Astana deemed “false information” regarding alleged corruption involving Akkenzhenov, based on documents leaked to him by another oil trader.
In a letter to the media after his arrest in April last year, Adilbekov said he was "being prosecuted for telling the truth about the people who had plundered the country and lobbied for the interests of Vitol, the single buyer of Kazakhstan’s oil.”
Adilbekov was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in October last year, for spreading false information.
Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol had been under the spotlight for years for its involvement with Kazakhstan’s top figures. In August last year, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service confirmed that Vitol was under investigation in the Netherlands for its activities in Kazakhstan.
Since 2015, Vitol won two tenders to provide loans in return for oil shipments for a total of $5.2 billion to Kazmunaigas.
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