New Kazakhstan prime minister targets energy sector

Kazakhstan's new prime minister Alihan Smaiylov identified priorities for the energy sector at today's first meeting of his government, which was appointed in the wake of the violent unrest that swept the country last week.

He ordered development of measures for regulating the oil products market. Protests against rising prices for LPG — widely used as motor fuel in Kazakhstan — were the starting point for last week's upheaval. The government reduced LPG prices and froze prices for other motor fuels in an attempt to quell the initial protests. Smaiylov said proposals for excise taxes on gasoline producers and intermediaries should be developed within a week. And he ordered the economy ministry and other government agencies to develop proposals for reform of the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, which holds the state's stakes in shares in oil and gas firm Kazmunaigaz, Kazakh Railways and other companies.

By John Gawthrop