Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, flew to Almaty on March 28 to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. They discussed cooperation and trade, as well as connectivity along the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor. Kallas and Tokayev also promised to ease visa regulations between the EU and Kazakhstan.
Nasdaq-listed fintech Kaspi.kz said on March 27 it is close to acquiring Rabobank AS, the Turkish unit of Rabobank Group, a Dutch financial group. Once the deal goes through, it would be Kaspi.kz’s second major asset in Turkey, after it bought 65.41% of Hepsiburada for $1.1 billion in January.
During a visit to a coal-fired power plant in the town of Ekibastuz on March 27, prime minister Olzhas Bektenov said that the existing 227 power plants in the country are depreciating at an average rate of 56%. Kazakhstan’s push for decarbonization in electricity generation and green transition are being hampered by both bureaucratic and corporate hurdles.
By mid-March, Kazakhstan had already exceeded its OPEC+ oil production quota, according to industry sources reached by Reuters on March 21. The expansion of its largest oil fields has pushed output to record highs.
Emergency workers extinguished on March 26 a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike last week against an oil depot in Russia. The depot, near the village of Kavkazskaya, was connected to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan’s main oil export artery. This was the third drone strike against CPC infrastructure since the start of the year.
Victoria Oil & Gas, a UK-based oil company, filed a lawsuit against the government of Kazakhstan on March 21. The company had bought a drilling license to explore a field in the western Atyrau region in 2005 for around $8.5 million. The government rescinded the license in 2008 and another local company purchased the rights to the field. According to the initial claim, Victoria is seeking a compensation of $112 million under Energy Charter Treaty regulations.
Kazmunaigas, the national oil and gas company, said on March 28 it is considering a proposal from Russia’s Tatneft to buy shares in two of the country’s refineries. Last week, the government said it would move forward with the privatization of the Atyrau and Pavlodar refineries, which are controlled by Kazmunaigas.
The corpses of thousands of saiga antelopes were found in the central regions of Kazakhstan this week. The local administration said the mass death could be connected to the cold winter season. On the same day, the ministry of ecology said it is discussing measures to “regulate” saiga antelope population, which could include their select killing in an effort to protect crops and farmland.
Alexander Mashkevitch, an Israeli-Kazakh businessman, died in London at the age of 71 on March 22. Mashkevitch had battled with a severe illness for years. In the 1990s, together with other Central Asian businessmen, Patokh Chodiev and the late Alijan Ibragimov, he established the so-called “Eurasian Trio”, which founded the Eurasian Resources Group, a mining conglomerate.
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