Kazakhstan, U.S. to Promote Energy Partnership

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with U.S. Secretary of State's Senior Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy Steve Mann in Astana on March 10

WASHINGTON, March 12 - President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed ways to promote energy partnership with the United States at a meeting with Ambassador Steven Mann, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State on Caspian energy, in Astana on March 10. The discussion centered on the U.S. companies' participation in further exploration activities in Kazakhstan and on the export routes for the country's oil, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The U.S. diplomat held similar talks with Foreign Minister Kassymzhomart Tokayev in Almaty on Monday.

The talks "one more time confirm the strength of connections between Kazakhstan and the United States on issues of energy partnership," Mann said after the meetings. He noted that the governments of the two countries both agree that they "need to further support the investment."

Mann declared that "every month, every year we see new discoveries that allow us to suggest that with further exploration oil reserves at the Kazakh fields will grow."

In addition to the giant Kashagan field with potential reserves of up to 13 billion barrels, Kazakhstan is expected to open for exploration up to 120 new offshore blocks in its Caspian sector in 2003. American companies, already accounting for one third of the total investment into Kazakhstan since 1991, are expected to take part in the new works.
Elsewhere, executives of Kazmunaigaz national oil company met with their Azeri counterparts in Almaty March 10 to discuss Kazakhstan's participation in the Baku-Ceyhan line.

"Kazakhstan is interested in this route because we have enormous oil reserves and will
be a major exporter," Kazmunaigaz executive director Kairgeldy Kabyldin said.

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