Central Asia

Kassym Jomart Tokayev, the Kazakh president, said that he has instructed his government urgently to complete work on a new plan to protect Central Asia from global economic shocks. Kazahstan, the only Central Asian country targeted by President Donald Trump, was subjected to additional tariffs of 27 percent earlier this month. Despite Trump's Wednesday reversal of many of the heavy duties, the countries still face a tariff of 10%. Kazakhstan is also vulnerable to falling oil prices, as the U.S. continues to put pressure on China. Kazakhstan is among the top 10 oil producing countries in the world. According to...

Sources said that as OPEC+ debated if they should keep oil production steady because of weak global demand, or increase it in response to pressure from the U.S. president Donald Trump and internal pressure, a record output from Kazakhstan helped sway their decision. OPEC, along with its allies, including Russia, a collective known as OPEC+ decided to increase production for the first since 2022. It stated that its decision was based on a healthy market and positive market prospects, without mentioning Kazakhstan. The group plans to increase production by 138,000 barrels a day starting in April. This is the first...

Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kazakhstan stressed on Wednesday the significance of complete dedication to the voluntary oil production cuts concurred by the Company of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, the Saudi state news agency reported. OPEC+ members are discussing an additional hold-up to a prepared oil output trek that was due to start in January, 2 sources from the producer group told Reuters on Tuesday, ahead of Sunday's meeting to decide policy for the early months of 2025. The remarks follow a meeting on phone held by Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Kazakh Energy Minister...

5 years ago, Chevron CEO Michael Wirth won Wall Street honor as the No. 2 U.S. oil business quickly attained a market value larger than Exxon Mobil's after he refused to get into a bidding war with Occidental Petroleum over a rival. He was ahead of the game when the pandemic hit oil and gas need, requiring competitors to make deep cutbacks that Wirth had already taken on at Chevron. Its shares had actually outshined rivals for five years till 2022. Fast forward to 2024 and Wirth's legacy is in threat. Chevron's falling earnings no longer cover its dividends and...

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are going over increasing the transit of Kazakh oil through Azerbaijan to 57 million tonnes, an official at Azerbaijan's. stateowned oil business SOCAR said on Thursday. Kazakhstan is attempting to decrease reliance on Russia with. regard to its energy exports, as most of Kazakhstan's flow of. 1.5 million barrels daily or 1.5% of worldwide supply go by means of. various Russian pipelines. We are presently performing negotiations with the Kazakh. side about increasing oil transit from this country to 5-7. million tonnes, stated Zaur Gakhramanov, an advisor to SOCAR's. president. Azerbaijan plans to open an oil terminal...

Turkey and Azerbaijan have actually agreed to extend their natural gas supply agreement, due to end at the end of this year, till 2030, and to provide Turkmen gas to Turkey, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Tuesday. The extended Azerbaijan-Turkey gas deal covers the delivery of 3.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year to Turkey until 2030, a SOCAR official told in Baku. In addition to the accord in between Turkey's state gas grid operator BOTAS and the Azeri gas supply business, 4 contracts were signed between BOTAS and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR for...

In spite of moving Sunday's. oil output decisionmaking conference online, a number of OPEC+. ministers prepare to fly to Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, 2. OPEC+ sources stated. OPEC oil-producing countries plus others including Russia make. up OPEC+, which is set to choose its production policy for the. remainder of 2024 and potentially next year. Sources stated OPEC+ is expected to talk about a complex deal. that may extend deep oil production cuts into 2025. Numerous OPEC+ ministers have actually been welcomed to Riyadh, sources. stated on Friday. OPEC+ members are currently cutting output by a total of. 5.86 million barrels...

Kazakhstan resumed gas exports in May that had actually been on hold since May 2022, sending 2,000 metric tons of the fuel to Georgia in May, 3 market sources familiar with the matter stated on Wednesday. Kazakhstan banned fuel exports 2 years ago to protect its domestic market from fuel lacks. Before the ban was introduced, in April 2022, Kazakhstan delivered some 26,000 tons of gas to foreign markets. Prior to this Kazakhstan likewise suspended fuel exports in 2021, while in 2020 its fuel exports totaled up to 494,000 tons. The Condensate refinery, an independent refinery in Kazakhstan, was granted...

Urals petroleum differentials firmed to outdated Brent on Friday in the middle of softer freight rates for the grade's shipments to Asia. Urals differentials to outdated Brent in northwest Europe firmed by some 70 cents per barrel to discounts above minus $13. per barrel, computations reveal. Discounts for 140-tonne Urals cargoes in the Mediterranean. have actually narrowed by some 25 cents and stand above minus $10 per. barrel to Brent. Freight rates for Aframax ships, which usually fill some. 720,000 barrels of Urals crude in Primorsk or Ust-Luga for a. one-way trip to Indian ports, alleviated to average some $7...

At least three tankers with Russian Urals oil on board picked a longer path to Asia around the Africa's Cape of Great Hope in March and April as military risks in the Red Sea stay high, 2 traders stated and LSEG information revealed. 2 tankers, Fos Picasso and Hydra, bring some 200,000 metric lots of Urals oil packed from Baltic in April went to India around Africa, while the vast bulk of the vessels with Russian oil have actually been selecting the shorter path by means of Suez channel and Red Sea, LSEG information shows. Many ships bring Russian items...

Urals crude differentials were steady on Wednesday in a quiet session due to a public holiday in lots of countries for May 1, while discounts for CPC Blend oil to dated Brent narrowed somewhat in fresh trade. PLATTS WINDOW * ExxonMobil sold 100,000 metric tons of CPC Blend loading from Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka on May 22-26 to Vitol at dated Brent minus $3.60 per barrel CFR Augusta. * ExxonMobil had actually offered the exact same freight in the previous session at the very same cost, but had actually not discovered a purchaser. * No quotes or offers were produced Urals and...

Russia and its partners inside the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) have agreed to continue highsulphur bunker fuel usage and production for vessels inside the bloc up until the end of 2026, the Eurasian Economic Commission ( EEC) stated on its website. The International Maritime Company (IMO), of which Russia is a member, implemented a 0.5% sulphur content limitation for bunker fuel worldwide from 2020, in one of primary changes for the marine market in the last few years. However, the EEU has actually been sluggish to carry out the limit for its domestic water-borne transport, which allows its refineries to...

Solidcore, a Kazakh gold miner, is looking at issuing bonds to fund investment in Kazakhstan, including new projects estimated to cost $350 million. The company's CEO Vitaly Nesis said that Solidcore was considering issuing these bonds to the Gulf region. Solidcore (formerly Polymetal International) is the second largest gold miner of Kazakhstan. In 2024, the company was forced to sell its Russian assets which accounted for 70% of its production. This happened after U.S. sanctioned its operations in Russia. Mercury Investments, a government-owned fund in Oman, was the largest shareholder of this new company. Its five-year investment program had to...

Kazakh gold miner Solidcore said Monday that high gold prices and growth in sales have almost doubled their net profit by 2024. However, they warned of the impact sanctions on concentrate delivery to Russia will have on first-quarter revenues. Solidcore (formerly Polymetal International) is the second largest gold miner in Kazakhstan. It expects to produce 487,000 gold equivalent ounces by 2025. In 2024, the company sold off its Russian assets after U.S. sanctions were imposed on its business in Russia in response to Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine. About 70% of the group's output and 50% of its core earnings...

Is Uranium a Critical Mineral? The U.S. Geological Survey has decided that it is not a critical mineral. It was removed from the list of critical minerals in 2022 because it wasn't a "fuel-mineral". Donald Trump, the president of the United States, wants you to reconsider. In one of Trump's "Unleashing America's Energy" directives, the Secretary of Interior is required to instruct the Director of the USGS "to consider updating the survey list of critical mineral including the possibility of including uranium." Included on the list, domestic uranium project funding and approvals would be expedited. It is curious that uranium...

Is Uranium a Critical Mineral? The U.S. Geological Survey has decided that it is not a critical mineral. It was removed from the list of critical minerals in 2022 because it wasn't a "fuel-mineral". Donald Trump, the president of the United States, wants you to reconsider. In one of Trump's "Unleashing America's Energy" directives, the Secretary of Interior is required to instruct the Director of the USGS "to consider updating the survey list of critical mineral including the possibility of including uranium." Included on the list, domestic uranium project funding and approvals would be expedited. It is curious that uranium...

Britain's Serious Scams Office has actually settled a suit brought by Kazakh mining group ENRC, which accused the firm of dripping info about a corruption probe to journalists. ENRC took legal action against the SFO, the agency's former case controller for the ENRC probe and a former employee over declared leakages throughout a. decade-long criminal investigation into supposed bribery by the. previous FTSE 100 business. The SFO had denied the claims. The SFO confirmed on Tuesday that the suit at London's. High Court had actually been settled, stating: Throughout this case we. robustly protected the claims. A confidential settlement has...

L Catterton, the private equity company backed by luxury items huge LVMH, on Wednesday clinched an offer to obtain a majority stake in pilates studio operator Solidcore from its existing owners. The deal values Solidcore at between $600 million and $700. million, according to an individual familiar with the matter. L. Catterton will own Solidcore through its Flagship Fund. The business, known for its difficult 50-minute exercise. classes on its sweatlana reformer makers, had actually been checking out. a sale with financial investment banks North Point and Piper Sandler,. Reuters reported in May. Consumers comprehend that motion is medicine, with...

Gold manufacturer Solidcore, formerly known as Polymetal International, plans to increase earnings in 2024 thanks to higher gold costs, CEO Vitaly Nesis stated on Friday. The Kazakhstan-based company posted a 73% year-on-year dive in adjusted EBITDA to $346 million for the very first half of 2024, driven by greater sales volumes and higher gold costs. Profits increased 79% to $704 million and its average realised gold price was up 17%. Gold costs powered greater on Friday, setting records, on expectations of U.S. rate of interest cuts. The cost of gold is substantially higher this year than last year. Therefore, we...

Britain's Serious Scams Office (SFO) has been declined authorization to appeal against a. judgment that it only opened a corruption probe into Kazakh mining. group ENRC because of its own wrongdoing, leaving the guard dog. facing a large damages expense. London's High Court ruled in December that ENRC was entitled. to millions of pounds in damages over a decade-long lawbreaker. investigation into alleged bribery, which was stopped by the SFO. in 2015 with no charges. ENRC had denied any misbehavior. That judgment also stated the SFO would not have released the. probe in 2013 if the company had not initially...

Glencore has developed 25,000 metric lots of unsold zinc due to the fact that of the growth and rampup of its Zhairem operation, part of its Kazzinc company in Kazakhstan, the business stated on Wednesday throughout a briefing call. We've had an accumulation in some stock, particularly in Kazakhstan in our zinc organization, so we've produced about 25,000 tonnes more than we offered ... Stocks will remain around the 25,000 level, said Glencore's primary monetary officer, Steven Kalmin. ( Zhairem) remains in quite a remote location and it's quite a. range from the processing centers, he said. A few of...

Gold producer Polymetal International prepares to double output by 2029 through acquisitions in Central Asia and will halt dividends while pursuing that goal, it stated on Tuesday in a strategy shift because the sale of its Russian properties. Polymetal's Russian company came under U.S. sanctions in 2023 after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The group offered its Russian assets, which represented about 70% of output and more than 50% of core earnings, for about $3.7. billion this year. We will need a hell of a great deal of capital to achieve our. vision, and at the exact...

Urals petroleum differentials to outdated Brent were stable once again on Thursday, while CPC Blend oil differentials firmed amid enhanced need from refiners in Europe, traders said. CPC Blend remained less expensive than regional alternatives in the Mediterranean, while European refiners had an interest in purchasing June cargoes of petroleum as the spring upkeep season ended, traders stated. Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), the export path for CPC Mix, increased oil products in January-April by 4% from the very same duration a year previously to 22.715 million metric lots (1.44. million barrels per day), 2 industry sources said on Monday. PLATTS...

Azeri BTC unrefined differentials reduced on Friday after an offer in the afternoon trading window, while CPC Blend remains under pressure, as oil need in Mediterranean remains weak, traders said. * Any Danish relocate to limit the flexibility of navigation of Russian ships in the Baltic straits will be viewed as a hostile act and draw retaliation, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. PLATTS WINDOW * SOCAR offered to Eni 650,000 barrels of Azeri BTC from Ceyhan over May 21-25 at dated Brent plus $1.55 per barrel. That was down by some 30 cents from the current...