Deal may be broken

Undoubtedly, the main event in the economic life of South Kazakhstan region in the last few weeks is a possible change of the owner of the Shymkent refinery.

The Canadian firm leaves the Kazakhstani market. It will be replaced most probably by the Chinese. The final decision on the sales of the shares of "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products" (PKOP,) a company operating the biggest oil and gas field at Kumkol and the Shymkent refinery has to be taken this week in Calgary, Canada.

At the same time in South Kazakhstan the destiny of the refinery and of the entire Canadian company is an object for close attention and a reason for feverish activities of different authorities and organisations, both state and private ones.

And the common impression from all these movements can be summed up as follows - the Canadians won't be left alone to leave quietly. The most significant event is perhaps the speech given by Aliakpar Matishev, chairman of the committee for protection of competition, Ministry of Industry and Commerce of RK, the day before yesterday, October 17, in Shymkent.

In particular he said that the antimonopoly authority of Kazakhstan revealed a fact of a secret agreement on prices between "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products" and the affiliated companies, which provoked an abrupt rise in prices for fuels and petrol in late September and early October. Thus, according to A. Matishev, earlier the committee for protection of competition had established a fixed price for fuels and petrol and the refineries had to sell the fuel to retail sellers exactly for those prices. The average wholesale price is from 30 to 40 KZT per litre depending on the sort of petrol. However instead of selling the petrol to all firms owning service stations for those fixed prices "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products" concluded a secret deal with several companies, to which it was selling its fuel. The rest of the operators had to buy fuel and petrol already from these companies, which, in their turn, skyrocketed the prices, because they were not subject to decrees issued by the antimonopoly authority.

Thus, a link of second hand dealers directly involved with the PKOP was created in the producer-seller chain. This fact according to the committee chairman provoked the petrol crisis in South Kazakhstan.

Currently the committee for protection of competition suits "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products" for 70 billion KZT, with support from judicial authorities of RK.

The company has not paid the suit claims so far. Aliakpar Matishev said that for that reason the government of Kazakhstan could ban any attempt of Canadians to sell Kazakhstani ventures or acknowledge the deal as illegal.

Besides, according to A. Matishev, in any case the Canadians had to officially advise the government of RK, i.e. the committee for protection of competition, about the prepared sales.

- During the last few weeks we in the committee were waiting for an official notification from "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products," - A. Matishev said, - but we did not receive it. At the same time media say that the deal has to be closed in the next few days.

- In relation with this, - he stressed, - if I were a potential buyer I would think seriously whether it were worth their while to do deals with such law breakers.

At the same time the chairman of the committee for protection of competition does not rule out a possibility that the government of RK itself will buy the share holding of "PetroKazakhstan Oil Products."

The speech delivered on the same day in Shymkent by Vladimir Shkolnik, minister of energy and mineral resources of RK, and parliament deputies from South Kazakhstan region, was in the same vein.