In mid-March Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev announced a reshuffle of government posts in a move widely interpreted as a harbinger of increased state influence over the country’s much-prized oil and gas reserves. The changes are also seen as a move to increase the contribution of the non-oil-and-gas sector of the economy.
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| Sauat Mynbayev will head up the new oil and gas ministry |
Prominent in the reorganization was a new oil and gas ministry, which will take over regulatory oversight of the country’s hydrocarbon reserves from national oil company KazMunaiGas. "The ministry will relieve KazMunaiGas of inappropriate functions that create a conflict of commercial and state interests," said Nazarbayev. "The activities of KazMunaiGas should be purely commercial."
Mr Fix-It
Sauat Mynbayev, the former minister of energy and mineral resources, who in recent years has earned a reputation as a Mr Fix-It for his work as a tireless advocate of government interests, was named as the head of the new ministry. Mynbayev played the leading role in renegotiating the terms of the agreement on the development of the Kashagan oilfield with a consortium of international oil companies two years ago, which gave Kazakhstan a greater role in the project.