| Headline: One step west and one step east Source: Euromoney Date: September 2000 Author: Ted Kim more on central & eastern Europe more from Euromoney September 2000 Conversation in Kazkakhstan in recent months has centred on one topic: oil. What appears to be a major new find has excited locals, multinationals operating in the energy sector and buyers of an oversubscribed sovereign Eurobond. The prospect of this impoverished country, where the average wage is barely $100 a month, becoming the next Kuwait has also enabled the nation teasingly to play prospective bride to both the West and Russia. Ted Kim reports For months, the people of Kazakhstan have been watching with mounting expectation developments in the east Kashagan oilFIeld in the Kazakh section of the Caspian Sea. Oil Finds in the past year in parts of the Caspian controlled by Russia and Azerbaijan have raised hopes of a big Weld on the other side of the Caspian in Kazakhstan. The government says at least one billion tonnes of oil, a sizeable deposit, has been found. But another report, attributed to US government sources, suggests reserves of as much as 6.8 |