Kazakhstan wants a stake in Orlen's Mozejki

Orlen has officially rejected the offer, but a Kazakh magazine "Kazakhstan Today" recently claimed that Orlen is going to swap a stake of Mozejki to acquire oil fields in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, last Thursday a Kazakh Minister of energy and natural resources, Baktykoza Izmuchambetow, revealed that after finalizing the Mozejki deal, Orlen contacted the Kazakh government several times regarding co-operation in oil fields exploitation and was re-directed to KazMunaiGaz (KMG), a state-owned oil and gas concern who had lost Mozejki to Orlen. To make matters more interesting, the same minister said that he knew nothing about Ryszard Krauze's purchase of oil fields in Kazakhstan and that he personally confirmed all oil industry transactions. A new law in Kazakhstan stipulates that the central authorities must own at least a 50% stake in any enterprise exploiting any significant oil fields and that they can even block the sales of shares of such companies. Kazakh authorities, however, deny any connection between the two matters and assure that Krauze's investment is heading towards a "positive conclusion". (Gazeta Wyborcza, August 26-27, p.26) J.L.