Country’s online auction brings in new names and hefty payment commitments
Оригинальный текст опубликован на сайте «Upstream», 15 December 2023 14:00 GMT . Автор: Материал доступен по .
An auction for eight oil and gas blocks and fields in Kazakhstan held in capital Astana on Thursday resulted in victory for many previously unknown investors.
Kaspyi Safety, a company domiciled in the Caspian town of Aktau in the Mangistau region, offered 35.4 billion tenge ($78 million) for the Doschan oilfield in the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan.
This was one of the highest bids in the history of such auctions that authorities in Astana have been conducting online sector since the Covid outbreak in 2020.
The Mangistau region hosts mostly depleted legacy oil and gas fields, operated by state oil and gas producer KazMunayGaz.
According to the Kazakh corporate database, Kaspyi Safety is listed as a supplier of special protective clothing employing less than five people, with no experience in oil and gas production mentioned.
Kazakh oil and gas industry social network channel Energy Monitor named 31-year-old Kazakh Murat Kadyrov as the sole shareholder of Kaspyi Safety.
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Upstream’s own enquiries, via telephone calls to Aktau and searches in social networks, found Kadyrov to be the son of Zibira Khasanova, a founder and director of a civic and protective clothes and boots factory in Aktau, known as Zhamal-Ai, and Abugali Kadyrov, a retired Kazakh police colonel with links to the country’s oil and gas industry veterans.
The Zhamal-Ai office in Aktau was contacted for comment, but none was received by the publishing time.
According to Energy Monitor, Kaspyi Safety is risking losing its non-refundable deposit of 186 million tenge ($410,000) if the company fails to pay the winning bid, usually due 20 days after the end of the auction.
Oleg Chervinsky, a publisher of Kazakh energy industry magazine Petroleum, suggested Kaspyi Safety is likely to have bid on behalf of another, larger domestic investor who preferred to remain anonymous.
The Doschan field was previously explored by the Petrokazakhstan oil venture, owned by China National Petroleum Corporation and KazMunayGaz.
However, the venture resolved to return the licence for the asset to the government at the end of the exploration period, as discovered reserves are not seen commercially viable.
Other winners
Another unknown company, Kazakh BPR Oil, offered the winning bid of 676 million tenge for the Zhamansu field in the Kyzylorda region, which Petrokazakhstan had previously explored.
Another asset in the auction, the Baklaniy North field in the country’s largest oil province of Atyrau, sold for 11.8 billion tenge to KasenService. This is also a company previously unheard of in the industry, incorporated in Atyrau.
The ministry had requested a non-refundable deposit of 34.5 million tenge from a the winner of the Baklaniy North field.
Five other assets in the auction were sold for between 21 million and 305 million tenge each, according to the Energy Ministry.
Energy Monitor said that among these acreages, just one — the Egizkara block in the Aktobe region — was won by professional local oil and gas player Kusto Group with the remaining ones ending in hands of companies with no prior energy industry experience.